Android P Will Likely Block Apps Which Target Android 4.1 and Older Versions

After announcing massive changes to its Play Store policies concluding December to make Android apps faster and more than secure, Google is possibly looking to cake even legitimate apps from running on Android P devices if the developers target older APIs to become effectually security and other restrictions.

That'south considering a recent APK teardown of Android P Programmer Preview has revealed that the newly-introduced MIN_SUPPORTED_TARGET_SDK_INT class restricts anything beneath API level 17 to be installed on Android P devices.

API level 17 corresponds to Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, which means all Android Apps that target Android 4.ane Jelly Bean and below, may well exist barred from running on Android P smartphones and tablets. Apps targeting lower API levels are currently allowed to run on Android P Dev Preview, admitting, with a pop-upwards warning, every bit seen in the video below. It isn't immediately articulate whether the concluding Android P release will stick with the warning or end such apps from running entirely in an endeavor to bolster security.

The official documentation, meanwhile, conspicuously states that "Applications targeting lower values will fail to install and run", so it will be interesting to see how all that plays out going forrad.

Google last December announced that all apps on the Play Store will have to target contempo API levels that are no more one twelvemonth one-time. If implemented strictly, it will mean that to be compatible with Android P devices, developers will have to target API level 26 (Android eight.0 Oreo) or higher. The restrictions volition apparently come into effect from August 2018. Existing apps, nonetheless, will become a small respite, seeing as they volition only need to push updates based on the newer APIs from November 2018.