Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Android Build a Simple Android App Getting Started with Android Android Project Basics

Posted by Suyash Patel
Suyash Patel
3,085 Points

Choosing the API level/minimum SDK for an android project

Why did the instructor in the videos choose the API level to be 15 ? Isn't choosing the lowest API level the best way forward since then we would not have to care about backward compatibility issues and our code would adapt itself for upcoming versions as was mentioned in the quiz ?

1 Answer

Seth Kroger
Seth Kroger
56,413 Points
Seth Kroger
Seth Kroger
56,413 Points

With the minimum SDK level there's always a balance between going low enough to support as many devices as possible and not going too low that you lose features your app needs to run. The Gingerbread-to-ICS gap is a significant one in features added to the OS so it's common to use ICS (api 15) as the minimum but still support 99% of devices. (See: https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html for OS usage).

Suyash Patel
Suyash Patel
3,085 Points

Thanks a ton ! Cleared up quite a few things for me.