Re: [android-developers] does executable code change (improve) with increase in minSdkVersion declaration in manifest? is minsdk 11 declaration really needed for tablets?

On Mon, Oct 28, 2013 at 9:26 AM, firebreather <michaelirvingbrown@gmail.com> wrote:

info seems fuzzy on the impact of changing minsdkversion declaration, particularly in the android docs, where it appears to just limit the number of phones the app site will allow to download your app. if that was the case then you'd think everyone would just declare minsdk of 1.

That would mean having to account for a huge number of API changes throughout the Android lifetime, and having to test a massive list of devices and configurations, which is bad enough already. 

 

i'm developing on version 14 with minsdk declared of 10 (recently up from 8). my biggest user categories are tablets according to my dashboard. according to the docs, I need minsdk declaration of 11, among several other things, for tablets to use my apps.

Can you site where this is specified?

Tablet support was introduced in Android 3.0. By "support", this means official APIs designed to take advantage of the larger screen space (i.e, Fragments and more resource qualifiers). That DOES not mean that tablets can't run older apps. They run just fine - they just end up looking like really huge phones.
 

 is this bad information? why can tablets use my app now if 11 is really needed?

In short, it's "needed" for the newer APIs that facilitate tablet development. They are not needed to just run the apps period. Moreover, with the Support Library, you can use many of those new APIs as far back as Android 1.6. So you "need" to target 11 if you're targeting tablets and are not using the support library.
 

 will raising the min to 11 change the executable code, improving the run time for my games on version 11 and up phones and tablets?

The target SDK tells the system what is the highest level you've confidently developed and tested on (usually based on your own device(s)). If you target something smaller, but run on something larger, the system runs in a compatibility mode that makes sure the app runs correctly on the newer platform. This might, and probably does, incur some overhead, though I'm not really sure about the specific details.

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TreKing - Chicago transit tracking app for Android-powered devices

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