How can I support API 16 but still have Leanback?

Question

I made my game work on Android TV, it required Leanback library , which wants minSdkVersion to be 17. I must support API 16 too. What can I do?

When building, I get an error this suggestion:

Suggestion: use tools:overrideLibrary="android.support.v17.leanback" to force usage

What exactly does it do? Does it actually make my app still support API 16? What am I losing?

Answer 1

You can find the detailed information here .

Here is what it says:

tools:overrideLibrary marker

A special marker that can only be used with uses-sdk declaration to override importing a library which minimum SDK version is more recent than that application's minimum SDK version. Without such a marker, the manifest merger will fail. The marker will allow users to select which libraries can be imported ignoring the minimum SDK version .

And you need to do the following: In the main android manifest :

<uses-sdk android:targetSdkVersion="14" android:minSdkVersion="2"
          tools:overrideLibrary="android.support.v17.leanback"/>

Hope this helps.