According to the report, Android 15 might block some of the apps that are currently in the Google Play Store or available in third-party marketplaces. Google is rumored to bring the next generation of its operating system to Android devices in the second half of 2024. With the release of Android 15 Developer Preview 2 on March 21, several new features were introduced. Now, a report suggests that Google may increase the minimum requirements for apps with an upcoming OS update.
The Android Police report noted that the software development kit (SDK) requirement has been changed and now supports a higher version. With each new OS update, Google adds new features and security parameters to the Android ecosystem. However, it gives developers enough time to meet the latest requirements. For example, currently Android 14 requires developers to target Android 6.0 or Marshmallow, which was released in 2015.
That OS was notable for requiring apps to get user consent for separate sensitive permissions like access to the camera, address book, call logs, and more. But now a report has revealed that the Android 15 DP2 build does not allow installing apps that target the Android 6.0 based SDK 23 on the devices. Instead, it now looks for SDK version 24, which is Android 7.1.
By running a test of trying to install an app that was not brought to SDK 24, the report showed that an Android 14 smartphone could easily install and run it. However, when the experiment was conducted on a Google Pixel 8 Pro running Android 15 DP2, an error appeared that said “INSTALL_FAILED_DEPRECATED_SDK_VERSION”. Even when trying to sideload the app, the OS popped up saying the app is not safe to install.
The message is not new and sideloading apps generally ask for that warning. However, what was surprising was that Install anyway the button that appeared after that did nothing and the app could not be installed. Based on the findings, it appears that apps still targeting Android 6.0 will likely stop working once Android 15 is released globally. However, it is noticed that there are not many apps targeting SDK 23 today as developers are trying to upgrade the app version to the latest Android standard.