Older Android devices and Android 8 app requirements

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ianboag

103 posts

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#240404 6-Sep-2018 11:17

I have been told that google are moving to a situation where play store stuff has to Android 8.0 compatible ..... and this means Android <8.0 devices will not be able to get stuff from the play store. Or have I misunderstood something. Will my current apps attempt to update and therefore die? Seems a bit harsh .....

gehenna

8497 posts

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#2084916 6-Sep-2018 11:24

How is it harsh to deprecate support for old apps built for old operating systems? It's been the way for decades, developers need to be proactive in building compatibility into their apps, it's not the responsibility of the platform provider to do anything other than provide an up-to-date, secure and responsive platform. Catering for the lowest common denominator of apps has always stifled innovation.

To address your concern though - if you remain on your current OS you most likely won't have any issue running your current apps, unless you accidentally delete one and have to try and download it again, but even then you can probably sideload it.

ianboag

103 posts

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#2085067 6-Sep-2018 14:31

Fair enough I guess. I ran into the problem when I was changing phones. Old Samsung running 5.0 and similar newer one running 6.0. So I copied apps and data etc and was surprised to find a app that would not run. I contacted the app supplier and he told me all this good stuff about versions. At present the app is not there on the Play Store. I guess it's progress

1101

3122 posts

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#2089809 13-Sep-2018 10:43

https://www.androidpolice.com/2017/12/19/play-store-require-new-updated-apps-target-recent-api-levels-distribute-native-apps-64-bit-support/

only will apply to new apps & any app updates
Apps that arnt updated will stay as is.

This really is bad news, and I bet will eventually have many moving to iphones .
Why, that old bogey of millions of phones that will NEVER get any Android update or patch after its a few years old.
Many android phones are sold with old Android versions and simply never get any updates

So , people will buy a low/mid level phone, a year later they cant install apps. Yeah, thats going to work out just fine. :-(
Of all the many Android devices Ive owned, only 1 ever had an update of any sort. All had old Android ver from new.

What Android should do is FORCE vanilla only installs, and FORCE manufacturers to either support ALL the cheap phones they sell or stop
allowing Android on phones that manufacturers wont support with timely updates for a reasonable length of time.

landcruiserguy

765 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2090258 13-Sep-2018 16:37

This problem is way worse on iPhone as the apple overlords just upgraded version until the device goes out of support. Once that happens you are on death row because when the minimum version of the apps is higher than your OS version you are just stuffed. No option to sideload older versions. It's been a while since I had this happen to me but I think from memory the apps update automatically (past your OS version) and then stop working or just disappear.

Same problem exists on Windows. Not sure if you have used an old version recently but Microsoft are going hard on stopping support and compatibility with over versions.

amiga500

1484 posts

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#2090432 14-Sep-2018 08:12

One of the reasons I bought a Nokia 5 - I was getting so frustrated finding new apps that were not compatible on my old S3. And it's not just phones I saw some tablets on sale recently that had crazy old versions of Android on them.

tchart

2379 posts

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#2090445 14-Sep-2018 08:42

gehenna:

How is it harsh to deprecate support for old apps built for old operating systems? It's been the way for decades, developers need to be proactive in building compatibility into their apps, it's not the responsibility of the platform provider to do anything other than provide an up-to-date, secure and responsive platform. Catering for the lowest common denominator of apps has always stifled innovation.

The problem here though is unlike say Windows your OS all updates are under the control of the handset makers who give zero sh!ts about keeping your device up to date. They just want you to buy another device.

Thats the very reason I stopped buying Samsung devices. I had at the time a flagship Note phone which had one update and a Galaxy Tab which never go beyond Android 4.4 (and that update was never made OTA here in NZ). Why invest in a $1000 device thats useless after 12 months?

So unless Google start pushing updates themselves people will jump ship to something else.

As much as I detest Apple their update model is less broken than Androids.

landcruiserguy

765 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2090448 14-Sep-2018 08:55

tchart:

gehenna:

How is it harsh to deprecate support for old apps built for old operating systems? It's been the way for decades, developers need to be proactive in building compatibility into their apps, it's not the responsibility of the platform provider to do anything other than provide an up-to-date, secure and responsive platform. Catering for the lowest common denominator of apps has always stifled innovation.

The problem here though is unlike say Windows your OS all updates are under the control of the handset makers who give zero sh!ts about keeping your device up to date. They just want you to buy another device.

Thats the very reason I stopped buying Samsung devices. I had at the time a flagship Note phone which had one update and a Galaxy Tab which never go beyond Android 4.4 (and that update was never made OTA here in NZ). Why invest in a $1000 device thats useless after 12 months?

So unless Google start pushing updates themselves people will jump ship to something else.

As much as I detest Apple their update model is less broken than Androids.

Project Treble and Android One should make all this better. You also get choice - want fast upgrades (and beta previews of new versions) then buy Pixel. If you want great hardware but can handle slow updates then buy Samsung. It's a little annoying that you can't have both great hardware and fast upgrades of course...

I think once we are past big changes like the new app permissions model and mandatory 64bit support then future versions shouldn't mean that apps fall out of support.

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1101

3122 posts

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#2090501 14-Sep-2018 10:29

landcruiserguy:

Project Treble and Android One should make all this better. You also get choice - want fast upgrades (and beta previews of new versions) then buy Pixel. If you want great hardware but can handle slow updates then buy Samsung. It's a little annoying that you can't have both great hardware and fast upgrades of course...

Sorry, but lets get this right. :-)
ZERO updates on many Samsungs . EVERY Samsung Ive owned : ZERO updates. ( Its not just Samsung with this issue )

Sure , if you have a flagship model, you eventually get updates, for a while.
Or pick your ph very carefully & it wont be an issue .

But for Joe Average ...
get a mid level Samsung droid , or god forbid a Name Brand droid customized for your Telco ..... its a crap shoot as to if/when you get anything .

landcruiserguy

765 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2090586 14-Sep-2018 11:32

1101:

landcruiserguy:

Project Treble and Android One should make all this better. You also get choice - want fast upgrades (and beta previews of new versions) then buy Pixel. If you want great hardware but can handle slow updates then buy Samsung. It's a little annoying that you can't have both great hardware and fast upgrades of course...

Sorry, but lets get this right. :-)
ZERO updates on many Samsungs . EVERY Samsung Ive owned : ZERO updates. ( Its not just Samsung with this issue )

Sure , if you have a flagship model, you eventually get updates, for a while.
Or pick your ph very carefully & it wont be an issue .

But for Joe Average ...
get a mid level Samsung droid , or god forbid a Name Brand droid customized for your Telco ..... its a crap shoot as to if/when you get anything .

I generally avoid the mid level android phones as they have been a horrible experience. Every Samsung device I have owned (about half a dozen) has had two major version updates which is about standard for android.

Don't get me wrong, I feel your pain. The speed of the updates annoys me. E.g I just went from Galaxy S8+ to Galaxy Note 9. The S8+ had Android 8.0 and the Note 9 had 8.1 which is basically the same. Note 9 was released after Android 9 and I suspect it won't get the update until mid next year. If you add the six month Samsung delay to the fact that Pixel\Nexus devices get the preview releases that come out six months before the official release then Samsung is basically a year behind which is annoying for a developer who likes to play with the latest. I have compromised on this because Google don't know how to make decent phones. Every single Nexus\Pixel has had a major flaw. Nexus 6p was probably the best but it got battery life of doom after the first year.

Hopefully project Treble will make this better although given how much customization Samsung does (which does add a lot of useful features) I suspect they will still be slow.

The current solution is to buy a Android One device which guarantees you two reasonably quick updates. I brought a Mi A1 for my son and it's been great (although no LET band 28 support).

At least Android has custom ROMs and sideloading older versions of apps. When your iOS drops out of support you just have to buy another one...

robcreid

243 posts

Master Geek

#2090638 14-Sep-2018 13:06

Is this really that big a deal?

All they seem to be saying is that new/updated apps need to support the latest android, but can also still support older android.

From the Android Police article linked above :-

As a reminder, target API level is different from minimum API level. As the name implies, minimum API level is used to declare the lowest version of Android an app supports.

For example, an app can target API 26 (Android 8.1) while having a minimum API of 14 (Android 4.0).

It's more work for developers as if they want add a feature/fix to existing apps then they will also need to update for new android versions.

I assume apps that are not updated will continue to work with the versions of android they do now.

Or am I missing something?

howdystranger

152 posts

Master Geek

#2090668 14-Sep-2018 14:14

I bought my OnePlus 6 because they committed to software upgrades for two years and one year of security updates after that