Recently android have launch 2.1 version, so i just want to ask, can phone running on 1.6 version are upgradable to 2.1 version.
There is no technical reason why not. It just depends if the ROM is made available for the phone.
If you are preparing an app for normal users, they depend on the phone producer - if he will give out new version they might install it, if not, they will stuck with the old version...
Here: http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-versions.html you can check, which version is most popular. If you want to reach many users, 1.6 should be your choice probably.
Depends on the phone manufacturer on how they want to push the updates to a particular device. for example HTC G1 device has not been updated to ver2.1 due to old hardware while HTC Hero was not updated above ver1.5 due to the incompatibilities of their Sense UI.
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I want to create android application for smartwatch with a cellular internet connection that send HTTP post to a server.
What android version support should i have?
I saw that android 5.1 support cellular network but in Wikipedia it written that only android 7.1.1 support cellular data.
Watches and Phones have thier own OS. Perhaps you found something built to look like a watch that is actually using the phone OS. i wouldnt doubt it as the wear playform is not given the same attention...
But at least in part the actual watch versioning is confusing.
it started out as Android Wear 1.x 2.x then reset to Wear OS 1.x which is now up to version 2.6, all while the latest version for Pie was again renamed to letter version, which is version H... Go figure.
Also if starting now at i wouldnt worry about the older Android Wear hardware, and not even sure if you could buy a new 'Android Wear' watch at this point, so any watch that advertises 'Wear OS by Google' will support Wear OS.
Also I might concider getting a watch with the physical USB connector so you can debugging on the device itself... otherwise you have to manage debugging over bluetooth which at least for me is not always stable on one pc, and have never gotten to work on another...
But such advise is rather particular to me...
Update: it strikes me that you might have been speaking about the target version of Android, which yes admitingly is yet another version to get familiar with developing with wearable android...
Usually it is seen as the target or compile versoin, and from what Im aware the SDK is compatible from version 7.x to the latest 9.0... but perhaps there are eirlier versions that work with the older Android Wear down to what you mention 5.x Im unsure.
Currently i target 8.0 but moving to 8.1 to get at updated libraries im interested in.
And then there are the API Levels to get familiar with...
Ya honestly it's really confusing...
I recently upgraded my Android phone to have Android 8.1 (LineageOS 15.1) only to realize that my office mail client does not work with it. When I consulted with the concerned team in the office, the only options I was given is to either wait till the issue is resolved (which will be late this year) or roll back to previous Android version. Now, I don't want to roll back my Phone to the previous version.
Now I am not sure if it's possible/feasible, but I was wondering if there is any way to simulate Android version for a specific app. There are application which can make your device to appear as a completely different device (I tried Market Helper), but couldn't find any option to simulate prior version.
If Android API is backward compatible, shouldn't it be possible to simulate version to specific apps? (I understand that this may not work completely, but it should be worth a shot).
Thanks in advance.
Not sure about specific app, but you can edit your device build.prop and change OS version to one, you want.
Đ•dit Android Version by locating ro.build.version.release= and changing the current Build Version.
I am a bit new to mobile development. I have been using my GS7 to debug the app I am creating and I have an add-on that requires API level 25. My phone is currently running version 24. Is it possible to change the API level of the device?
You can do it by updating the operative system on your phone. The problem is most of the phone manufacturers cook the OS to highlight flagship features and to create a unique user experience (in my opinion, is a bad strategy which causes more problems than the added value). Since the OS is coocked there might not be an upgrade for your phone.
Here is a table with the API level and the name of the OS.
The most common solution for this is to use an emulator. If you are working in Mac there would be no trouble on using the default emulator, but in Windows or Linux Genymotion is recommended.
To be clear, there is no such a thing as changing the API level on your Android phone by code from an app. You have to update the OS.
Sometimes using target API code can be solved by other means, making your app compatible with older devices. Sometimes is simply using another class, other times there is a compatibility class, and worst case scenario is using an if statement where you check the OS version.
If you need to test a feature that requires api 25, then you should probably do it on the emulator.
It's gotten really good. I do most of my work on it.
https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator.html
Is it possible for every Android mobile to be upgraded to its latest version or are there any limitations?
I have seen ad-tags for many mobile devices saying "Upgradeable to 2.2", or "Upgradeable to 2.1". Isn't upgrading a mobile OS just like upgrading a desktop OS?
It depends on the manufacturer. I have an HTC Desire and I don't believe there are any plans to upgrade that to Android 2.3, however the HTC Desire HD has. I could install an unofficial 'port' of Android 2.3, but it wouldn't be a reliable as the official.
Bottom line is, yes I believe it is possible, but it won't always happen.
I just uploaded my first app to the Android marketplace and one comments says, "It force closes on G1". What version of the Android OS does the G1 use?
Originally the G1 shipped with 1.0, then upgrades were released to update the phone to 1.1, 1.5 (Cupcake) and 1.6 (Donut).
So you would expect most users to be on 1.6. However, there are a couple of extra things you may want to consider.
Firstly, some users will be running custom firmware. A quite a few G1 users - me included - run community firmware on their devices, such as CyanogenMod. Often these releases are 1.6 releases with 2.x functionality ported from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) tree, so you could consider them as a hybrid release, putting the phone somewhere between 1.6 and 2.x. I wouldn't worry about the people running custom firmware since they are so many different firmwares and builds of each firmware, and people who put custom firmware on their phone usually expect to fend for themselves. I only mention it in case you get some weird bugs you really can't replicate which might be caused by this.
Secondly, I'd recommend looking at the Android Device Dashboard as this shows what fraction of users of all phones are running each release:
At the time of writing 31% of users are still on Android 1.5 and I would guess quite a few of these are running G1s.
So my advice would be to test your application on 1.5 and 1.6 if you want to support G1 users.
The latest should have been Android 1.6, but originally it was shipped with Android 1.0 (Source).
The latest update they've pushed out to the G1 is Android 1.6. They're supposed to be working on trimming down 2.0 to make it fit on the G1 but so far it hasn't been available without hacking your phone.
Currently 1.6 (Donut), this is most likely the last OS version that will be on the G1.
Originally it was shipped with Android 1.0. Now it uses Android 1.6