For the same reason, when developing for newer versions of Android, a best practice is to use backward-compatible APIs and libraries. You should also consider when choosing the lower API versions that they also have their trade-offs for compatibility. Ideally, developers keep the minimum API level at 21, supporting devices running Android OS 5.0 (Lollipop), which supports approximately 94% of Android smartphones in the market today. The API level distribution chart is available in Android Studio → Start a new Android Studio Project → Select a Project Template → Configure Your Project → click on Help me choose below Minimum SDK. This will help you pick the right minimum API version to support for your end users. The Android Studio team has included this smart guide, which outlines all the necessary API-specific details for each version.

Hence, choosing the right SDK version also depends on the specific use case that you want to achieve. API levels and backward compatibilityĬhoosing the right SDK version is very crucial for Android applications, as certain APIs are allowed and restricted based on the supported SDK versions. Constant improvements and various optimizations make Gradle a high-performance and versatile tool.

A build cache can also be used to enable the reuse of task outputs from previous runs or even from a different machine (with a shared build cache). Gradle avoids unnecessary work by only running the tasks that need to run based on changes in their inputs or outputs. The Gradle build system is based on Groovy, which is an object-oriented programming language. The tasks compile the code for packaging, testing, deployment, and publishing. Gradle runs multiple tasks based on the development or deployment required. Gradle is a flexible general-purpose build automation tool made for building almost any type of programming-language-based software development.

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