13

Should I build an app that targets Android 2.2 and release it on the Android Marketplace;

Would the app be available for download and use on devices running a version of Android OS lower than the targeted version of the app? - Let's say Android OS version 1.6.

What would happen if a user (with an Android OS version 1.6 powered device) were to attempt to run the app?

Would they be prompted to update their OS or just receive an error message?

Vadim Kotov
  • 8,084
  • 8
  • 48
  • 62
Jason Sultana
  • 1,049
  • 2
  • 10
  • 10

3 Answers3

11

It depends what you have in the minSdkVersion field in your AndroidManifest.xml. If it is set to 4 or lower, then it will be visible to people using 1.6.

There's a good explanation here.

Community
  • 1
  • 1
Graham Borland
  • 60,055
  • 21
  • 138
  • 179
8

The android SDK is completely backward compatible using the mechanism that @Graham mentions. The other question will be "how far should you go". Use this graph to see the population of users on each platform level.

http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html

This is pure opinion, but I would advise starting your app at API levels 7 or 8. The benefits of the APIs in EClair+ are worth losing this 0.4% still on 1.x devices.

ingh.am
  • 25,981
  • 43
  • 130
  • 177
Eric Cloninger
  • 2,260
  • 2
  • 21
  • 26
  • Updating this answer for 2013. If you look at the graph, the sweet spot is to set Gingerbread API level 10 as the minimum. You are able to get roughly 95% of visitors to Google Play with this setting. Another year or two, and you can set the minimum to 15. – Eric Cloninger Apr 04 '13 at 18:05
  • 1
    From latest update here: http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html API level 10 is still the sweet spot which gives you 98.3% coverage! – Bruce Nov 23 '13 at 09:11
0

If you are targeting 2.2, users with earlier SDK will not be able to download it.

They will see: This app is Incompatible with your device XXXXXXX

iTurki
  • 16,292
  • 20
  • 87
  • 132