Google Is Introducing App Compatibility Option for Developers in Android 11 Upda

Posted by james on January 27th, 2020

Each year Google highlights some exciting changes for its upgraded version of Android. Generally, users judge Android versions by visual changes that influence user experience. However, Android update also comes with lots of changes to platform behavior and APIs. For an app developer, these changes are significant. If you offer Android app development services, you must also take note of these changes. These updates significantly alter the way an app is consumed by end-users.

So what’s expected in Android 11? It’s said that Google will make it easier for developers to test and prepare apps by introducing the new app compatibility setting in developer options.

There’s Good News for Developers 

Each time Google introduces a new version of Android, developers who are interested in maintaining their apps have to go through all of them one by one and come up with a strategy to adopt. They also decide whether to update apps or migrate from their existing API to a new API. This path is sometimes optional and sometimes not.

But there is one relief, they don’t have to update the API immediately. However, they would eventually have to shift to meet the new requirements of the Google Play Store. Later, they have to test their app on the latest Android version. This can be done on a local device, an emulated device or a cloud-hosted device. Testing is part of Android app development services, but when significant upgrades are required, testing becomes even more crucial.

What’s Changing?

Whenever Google has to introduce significant platform behavior changes, it never immediately implements them in the new Android version. This is done to protect users from losing app functionality. It also gives developers time to update their apps.

Now that Google is all set for Platform Compact Project, developers won’t have to run the ADB commands for each new change in platform behavior. Android 11 will come with an additional submenu within developer options. It will let the developer toggle new platform behavior on each app without sending ADB shell commands, and each target API level will have a different section. Cool, right?

For instance, the APL level >19 will have a separate set of behavior changes that you can toggle, whereas API Level > 20 will have its changes.

In the app compatibility section, the default enabled changes will include all the Android 11 API changes that will be enabled by default on the apps no matter what SDK is in use. On the other hand, under the enabled for target SDK version, you will find Android 11 API changes enabled for apps that are targeting Android 11 on a particular API level.

What’s the Release Date?

Android 11 is all set to release sometime after spring 2020. Before that, Google might release several beta versions until its firmware is finalized. That will happen between August and September. This new upgrade isn’t going to be exciting for end-users, but it will make the job of app developers a whole lot easier.