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Target Android API level requirements for Google Play store

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08-22-2018 03:45 PM
by Anonymous User
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‎08-22-2018 03:45 PM
In order to improve the security and performance of Android apps, Google continuously updates its policies for apps published on the Google Play store. With the recent changes announced in this blog post https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2017/12/improving-app-security-and-performance.html, Google has laid down a road map for the target API level requirement for Android apps.
 
Target API level requirements for Android Apps
  • From August 2018, Play store requires new apps to target Android API level 26 (Android 8.0) or higher in order to be published.
  • From November 2018, all apps, including updates to existing apps, need to target Android API level 26 (Android 8.0) or higher to be published in the Play store.
 
 
How does this impact AppStudio users? 
If you have recently tried to submit your apps to Google Play store, you might have encountered the following warning message:
 
In order to get Android apps built using AppStudio to meet the requirements of the Google Play store, we have updated our cloud Make servers to target Android API level 26 by default for Android apps. If the Play Store submission for your app has failed because of the target API level requirement, please rebuild your app using the Make tool in AppStudio and then submit it again to the Play Store. 
Please note that from August 2018, the Google Play Store only requires new apps to target Android API level 26. However, if you already have apps that are published in the Google Play Store with the target API level below Android API level 26, and plan to publish updates to them, you can still do so until the 1st of November 2018. After this date, any updates to existing apps also need to target API level 26. In this case, you will need to rebuild your app with AppStudio 3.0 or later to fulfill the requirement of the Google Play Store.
 
I hope this has been helpful in getting your Android apps to the store, and we look forward to making your experience with AppStudio better.