Aware of the particularly high vulnerability of the Android ecosystem, Google tightens the noose against developers. They have to comply with increasingly stringent requirements. Since November 1, 2020, All app updates submitted to the Play Store must target Android 10 and higher versions. Google has already required developers to follow this rule for new apps since August.
This requirement in the Google Play Store is not really surprising as it has been systematic since 2018. Google is forcing publishers to adopt the SDK (development environment) of at least the penultimate version of Android. In this case, they should first develop their apps by targeting devices running at least Android 10.
Play Store: new apps and updates should now target Android 10 or Android 11
By asking publishers to develop their apps with Android 10 and later standards, Google hopes to encourage the adoption of new APIs, thereby providing users with a better security and experience. However, remember that these requirements relate only to the target API level, not the minimum required Android version.
In other words, apps will continue to be compatible with older versions of the operating system, but users may miss some features that require the latest version of the system, Android 10 or Android 11. Backward compatibility is important because Android is still very fragmented in 2020. Millions of users are using older versions of the operating system due to software support reaching almost three years in the past. best situations.
But manufacturers are making great efforts to distribute updates faster on compatible smartphones. After Android 10 was released in September 2019, it took just 5 months to reach 100 million devices. in April 2020, OS worked on 8.2% of devices certified by Google. This figure has surely increased since then, but the latest statistics are out of reach, Google no longer publishes the status of the Android distribution for a while.
Source : XDA Developers
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