Android 15, which will debut later in 2024, may block the installation of some apps.
The mobile OS internally codenamed “Vanilla Ice Cream” is already here via the first and second development previews (DP1 and DP2) that were released on February 16 and March 21, respectively. The second developer preview (DP2) was released on March 21, 2024.
Right now – on Android 14 – you can run apps that “target” at least Android 6.0. Why Android 6.0? Well, because Android 6.0 introduced a significant change to app permissions, marking a pivotal moment for user privacy. Before Android 6.0, users granted permissions to apps at the time of installation.
This meant that if an app specified certain permissions in its manifest (such as access to your contacts, location, or storage), agreeing to install the app meant that you automatically agreed to all of those permissions. Users were not fully aware of what they were agreeing to or the implications of those permissions, as all permissions were granted upfront, without context or understanding of how they would be used.
With Android 6.0 (codename: Marshmallow), Google moved to a more approachable and privacy-focused approach by introducing runtime permissions. This change meant that instead of granting all permissions at once during app installation, users would be prompted to grant permissions individually, in context, at the time the app actually needs to use that particular feature.
For example, if a photo app wanted to access your device’s camera, it would only ask for that permission when you tried to take a picture within the app, not at the time of installation.
To the next question: what is “targeting”? In Android app development, “targeting” is like telling your app which version of Android it’s designed to work best with.
Targeting Android 6.0 ensures that your app is compatible with devices running Android 6.0 and above. This doesn’t prevent your app from running on newer versions of Android, but it does mean that you’ve tested your app and confirmed that it runs smoothly on Android 6.0. Android Police reports that Android 15 it is deprecating apps built for Android Marshmallow, which means it won’t allow users to install apps that are meant for Android 6.0.
Now the new bar is Android 7.0, or Android Nougat:
While digging into the latest Android 15 Developer Preview 2 release, I noticed that the OS is now blocking me from installing apps built for SDK version 23, i.e. Android 6.0 Marshmallow. When I built an app targeting SDK version 23 and deployed it to a Google Pixel 7 Pro running the latest Android 14 QPR3 Beta 2 release, I was able to install it without any issues.
In reality, you should be just fine with the current apps included Android 15.