It has been claimed that Google plans to start prohibiting the installation of applications that have been designed for previous versions of the Android operating system very soon. These modifications are expected to become active with the subsequent significant update to the operating system, and it is anticipated that they will improve security both inside and outside of the Play Store.
It is in Google’s best interest for developers to maintain their work up to date so that it targets the most recent version of Android; in fact, the company’s most recent standards for the Play Store require that applications target at least the operating system’s second-most recent major upgrade.
According to recent reports, the upgrade from Android 13 to 14 would bring more stricter requirements in regard to these matters. According to 9to5Google, who cites the developer Dylan Roussel as their source, Google plans to leave older applications behind by changing the API requirement level of the next operating system update in a manner that more strictly enforces compatibility with newer versions of Android.
Even though this criteria will gradually remove targets until Android 12 is the oldest authorized version, the new requirements may initially not seem to be very stringent since they will only permit new installations of applications that target Android 6.x (Marshmallow) or later.
Users who wish to use or are required to use applications that are no longer being developed may soon find that they are unable to obtain such apps via the Google Play Store if they have done so in the past. Side-loading is often the go-to work-around in a case like this; nevertheless, Android 14’s new API thresholds will allegedly soon also be applicable to them.
However, according to Roussel, certain alternative workarounds, such as manually loading through command shell, may still be viable under Android 14’s new app-install limits. These restrictions were purportedly intended to reduce the amount of malware found on the most popular mobile operating system.
