Android 15 increases minimum app requirements and may block older apps: Report

According to the report, Android 15 may block some apps currently listed on the Google Play Store or available on third-party marketplaces. Google is rumored to introduce its next-generation operating system for its Android devices in the second half of 2024. The release of Android 15 Developer Preview 2 on March 21 introduced several new features. Now, according to a report, Google may increase the minimum requirements for apps in an upcoming OS update.

The Android Police report highlights that the software development kit (SDK) requirements have changed to support higher versions. With each new OS update, Google adds new features and security parameters to the Android ecosystem. However, it gives developers enough time to adapt to the latest requirements. For example, currently with Android 14, developers are asked to target his Android 6.0 or Marshmallow released in 2015.

This OS was important because apps must obtain individual consent from users for sensitive permissions such as access to the camera, address book, call logs, and more. However, this report found that the Android 15 DP2 build does not allow apps targeting Android 6.0 based SDK 23 to be installed on the device. Instead, he is now requesting SDK version 24 (Android 7.1).

After running tests to install apps that are not compatible with SDK 24, the report found that they can be easily installed and run on smartphones running Android 14. However, when I ran the experiment on a Google Pixel 8 Pro running Android 15 DP2, an error popped up saying “INSTALL_FAILED_DEPRECATED_SDK_VERSION”. When I tried to sideload the app, the OS popped up a message saying it was unsafe to install the app.

This message is not new, and sideloading apps typically display this warning. However, the surprising thing is that install it anyway The button that appears after that does nothing and I was unable to install the app. Our findings indicate that apps still targeting Android 6.0 may no longer work after Android 15 is released globally. However, note that there aren’t many apps currently targeting SDK 23 as developers try to bring their app versions up to the latest Android standards.