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Are All The Android API's Backwardly Compatible?

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  • 08-07-2012 9:22pm
    #1
    The_Thing
    Registered Users Posts: 1,017 ✭✭✭


    I have Android 4.1 (API 16) installed and all seems to be OK. To cut down on bloat it's the only version of the API I installed when I was setting up my development environment.

    Am I correct in believing that as long as I don't incorporate any functionality in my apps specific to a later version of the API I can safely use this version to write code to run under Android 2.3.3 (API 10)?


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    #2
    CrazyFish
    Registered Users Posts: 211 ✭✭CrazyFish


    Majority of the stuff should be backwards compatible but not all of them are. For example if you were using Bluetooth I don't think it is support below Android 2.0(Unless things have changed since I have last used Bluetooth).


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    #3
    Odaise Gaelach
    Registered Users Posts: 1,235 ✭✭✭Odaise Gaelach


    I think so. But to be honest, you'd be better off downloading API 10 and targeting it in your project. Just to be completely sure. :)


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    #4
    Joneser
    Registered Users Posts: 428 ✭✭Joneser


    I am pretty sure most things are backwards compatible as mentioned above, but here is some information on backwards compatible UIs for android:

    http://developer.android.com/training/backward-compatible-ui/index.html


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    #5
    The Corinthian
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,777 ✭✭✭✭The Corinthian


    The_Thing wrote: »
    Am I correct in believing that as long as I don't incorporate any functionality in my apps specific to a later version of the API I can safely use this version to write code to run under Android 2.3.3 (API 10)?
    More or less. There are a few things that are not strictly tied to functionality, such as FILL_PARENT was renamed MATCH_PARENT from API 8 that might cause issues, but for the most part compatibility issues tend to be largely incremental functional ones - at least from API 7.

    Setting an API value for android:minSdkVersion in the manifest, should also enforce backward comparability.

    As for what minimum API to write for, according to the latest figures you could probably ignore everything below Froyo (API 8) at this stage (~5%).


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    #6
    The_Thing
    Registered Users Posts: 1,017 ✭✭✭The_Thing


    Thanks to everyone for their help.

    If I test out an app on my phone - a Huawei Ascend G300 - will the app overwrite the previous instance of itself (if any) or will I end up with multiple versions installed? I imagine it will overwrite what was there before, but no harm in asking for clarity's sake.

    I'd rather try them out on the phone as I find the emulator to be unbearably slow loading them.


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    #7
    CrazyFish
    Registered Users Posts: 211 ✭✭CrazyFish


    The_Thing wrote: »
    Thanks to everyone for their help.

    If I test out an app on my phone - a Huawei Ascend G300 - will the app overwrite the previous instance of itself (if any) or will I end up with multiple versions installed? I imagine it will overwrite what was there before, but no harm in asking for clarity's sake.

    I'd rather try them out on the phone as I find the emulator to be unbearably slow loading them.

    It uninstalls and reinstalls the application when it already exists on the phone. So you wont have duplicates.


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    #8
    The_Thing
    Registered Users Posts: 1,017 ✭✭✭The_Thing


    CrazyFish wrote: »
    It uninstalls and reinstalls the application when it already exists on the phone. So you wont have duplicates.

    Thanks for letting me know.


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