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Chrome recently announced ending support for Jelly Bean (API level 16). Some of our developers have a view that we should also drop support for JB and move minimum API level to KitKat (API level 19).

To give you some background, we have couple of apps and all our apps support API level 16 and above without any issues. We do not have any API version specific code (or maybe minimal) and so far no hassle supporting API level 16.

Since it's as easy as changing minimum sdk version in Android Studio, I was wondering, is there any advantage in changing minimum api level from 16 to 19. In other words, are we losing something by staying on minimum API level 16 for now, for example any optimization etc? As per Android Dashboard, there are are still 3% user for API level 16-18.

In general, I like to understand what one loses by supporting older Android versions.

Your inputs will be appreciated!

mesibo
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  • It's a business decision, weighing between making customers happy and your convenience. Since you have no issues supporting 16 and above, then just keep on doing it. – lionscribe Dec 19 '18 at 13:51
  • I don't have time for it but countless bugs can crawl with support for so many versions. One example is line spacing on text view not working as expected on pre-lollipop devices. – TheKarlo95 Dec 19 '18 at 14:09

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