[Development] Android Minimum Supported Version Changes

[Assam Boudjelthia]

Hi,

Qt for Android usually has been supporting a wide range of Android versions, some very old. To keep the supported versions to a level that’s maintainable by Qt, esp. for LTS releases which are expected to live for a period of 3 years, we’ve been looking into having a formal guideline on how to select the minimum supported version for a given release. That will also make the selection clearer and transparent, and help shape proper expectations of support for future versions. Going forward, we’re adopting the following criterion for choosing the minimum supported version of Qt for Android:


We will aim to evaluate bumping the minimum version once a year for the fall releases, which then would also include LTS releases. We would target at least 90% of cumulative usage in the market as listed on https://apilevels.com at the time of the Platform Freeze deadline of a given Fall Release. The selection is done 1 month before the Platform Freeze, when we check what versions would fit the 90% range, and decide then whether to bump or not and to what new minimum version. Such changes will then be communicated to the mailing list, and be reflected in the release change log and Qt for Android documentation. In the case where we need to bump to a version that doesn’t follow the mentioned criteria, such cases are exceptions and will be announced at the time of the Platform Freeze deadline along with reasons for the decision.


The minimum version changes would be reflected in our CI test runs, and in the build system (i.e. CMake and androiddeployqt), thus the released libraries would require said minimum version to run. To target older versions a Qt rebuild with appropriate build system changes would be needed, however, note that while such builds might work for older versions, they would fall outside of Qt official support scope.


For Qt 6.8 release, since the Platform Freeze is on May 17th https://wiki.qt.io/Qt_6.8_Release, the minimum supported version will be Android 9 API level 28, and the work on this is tracked under QTBUG-124890<https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-124890>.


Best regards,

Assam
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