您应该选择哪个构建目标和最低SDK版本？

Question

Hey, I'm building just a basic app with text, urls, pictures, and some buttons. When you create a new project what build version do you usually choose? The highest, 2.2? And also what min SDK version do you choose? Also 2.2? or the lowest one possible?

I'm a little confused by what would be best for all customers

-Thanks!

Answer 1

You should choose what you want to support.

If you want the latest API features, choose 2.2 (or soon 2.3). But if you want to include all possible phones, you need to go as low as 1.5 for the min target. The catch is that if they are using a 1.5 device you have avoid making API calls that only exist in a later version of Android.

Answer 2

My two cents worth is that I am also investigating this question. With the exception of this page, I also found the following official statistics to be helpful.

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

Also, if you already have applications published in the market you can get data on how your specific application is perceived by your audience, this may help you to choose.

From a personal perspective, at the time of writing I am going to set my minimum version to 2.2 as this is the minimum API level required to write applications that use OpenGL ES 2.0.

(slightly off topic, but to qualify the statement about OpenGL ES 2.0 http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/opengl/opengl-es20.html )

Answer 3

It just depends on what you want to do. If you want to support multiple Android versions then do what Falmarri said. Select the lowest API version you want to support for minSDK and choose the API version you are targeting for the buildTarget .

However you have to keep in mind that you might have to handle certain stuff in a different way for different API versions which might require if-else blocks checking for the API version. It is nothing hard to do nor something magic just keep it in mind and check the reference page on the classes and methods you use.