00:00 hey guys and welcome back to a new video

00:02 lots of beginners learning Android are

00:04 confused about the three SDK versions We

00:06 can Define in our build. gr app file so

00:09 these in particular look like this we

00:11 have compile SDK minimum SDK and Target

00:14 SDK and in this video I will share what

00:16 the differences between these are so you

00:18 can understand that once and for all and

00:20 just a quick reminder when this video

00:22 comes online there is still my big black

00:24 week course discount active but only for

00:26 12 more hours this is really the last

00:28 time the prices for my course will be

00:30 decreased for this year so check them

00:32 out by clicking the first link in this

00:33 video's

00:34 description now let's get back to the

00:37 video before you can really understand

00:39 the differences between compile SDK

00:40 minimum SDK and Target SDK we need to

00:43 understand what this SDK actually means

00:45 because that is what all these versions

00:46 have in common SDK itself just stands

00:49 for software development kit so it's

00:51 really just a toolkit of functionality

00:53 we get from somewhere in this case from

00:55 the Android SDK so the Android software

00:57 development toolkit it really provides

00:59 everything in form of classes and

01:02 functional Android apps and the SDK

01:04 version then refers to the version of

01:06 that Android development toolkit so

01:08 obviously Android develops over time it

01:10 gets more features also how the

01:12 operating system itself Works changes in

01:15 each set of these changes then just gets

01:17 its own version we can also take a look

01:19 here by clicking on the settings icon in

01:21 the top right opening this SDK manager

01:24 here we can now see which Android

01:26 version that the public knows for

01:28 example Oreo or pi relates to which API

01:31 level so this API level number is just

01:33 this SDK version we just saw in our

01:35 grade file so it's really just like an

01:37 internal number for an Android version

01:40 and when it now comes to the differences

01:42 between these three versions because

01:43 they all sound kind of similar or at

01:45 least don't really reveal what these are

01:47 for maybe only minimum SDK but compile

01:51 SDK and Target SDK aren't as clear so

01:53 let's dive into them and let's start

01:55 with minimum s because as I said that is

01:57 the easiest to understand this just

01:59 refers to to the minimum Android API

02:01 level your app can run on currently this

02:06 nougat or Android 7 and the more you

02:08 increase this version the less Android

02:11 versions your app finally supports the

02:13 advantage is of course that you need to

02:15 deal with much less compatibility issues

02:17 because you say your app should only be

02:20 able to run on this little group of

02:21 Android versions however if you decrease

02:23 this version that means your app could

02:25 potentially run on a lot more Android

02:27 versions and therefore more users could

02:29 install it but on the other hand you

02:31 need to deal with much more

02:32 compatibility issues most apps nowadays

02:35 set this to 21 24 or 26 with that you

02:39 really Target a broad range of android

02:40 devices which is probably 90 to 95% of

02:44 all devices let's next talk about the

02:46 target SDK because that isn't as clear

02:48 as the minimum SDK the target SDK refers

02:52 to the API level version that you've

02:54 tested your app against so from time to

02:56 time there are just certain Behavior

02:58 changes in Android and if there are such

03:00 Behavior changes you can set the target

03:02 SDK version to these corresponding

03:04 versions where these Behavior changes

03:06 were introduced to indicate that you

03:08 aware of these changes and you've tested

03:11 this was for example the introduction of

03:13 scope storage which was just a very

03:15 major file storage revamp of Android so

03:18 how file access worked especially when

03:21 it comes to the shared storage section

03:22 of Android where multiple apps could

03:24 access that and of course migrating a

03:26 big app from the old storage system to

03:28 this new scoped storage system isn't

03:30 something that happens in a day

03:31 therefore when that was introduced you

03:33 could use the target SDK version and set

03:35 it to a version before that storage

03:38 revamp because that says you are not yet

03:40 aware of these Behavior changes or you

03:42 at least did not test your app against

03:44 these yet but as soon as you then

03:45 migrate your app to these new changes

03:48 you can then increase the target SDK to

03:50 say hey we prepared our app for these

03:52 changes and we're now aware of these and

03:54 therefore also want to apply these new

03:56 Behavior changes to our app however

03:58 usually these Behavior changes just mean

04:00 deprecations and more complex

04:02 restrictions for us developers I mean in

04:04 the end they achieve some form of better

04:06 security for the users but usually they

04:11 just take the target SDK and leave it at

04:13 a very low version like 26 for example

04:16 so we don't have to deal with all these

04:18 modern Android restrictions such as

04:19 scope storage which is really just a

04:21 pain to deal with and technically you

04:23 can do that you can set the target SDK

04:25 to 26 you therefore don't have all these

04:27 restrictions and you can still use the

04:29 most modern apis on Android however the

04:31 biggest problem is that you won't be

04:33 able to publish your app on Google Play

04:35 that way so you can see we get a warning

04:36 here if we hover over that you can see

04:38 Google play requires that app's Target

04:40 API level 31 or higher so Google still

04:43 kind of controls what you have to set

04:45 for that but technically if you would

04:47 reduce this version to something like 26

04:49 or even lower your app would just behave

04:51 fine on Android devices if you manually

04:53 install it or install it via a different

04:56 Play Store or different app store but if

04:58 you plan on getting an actual user base

05:00 that is of course not the best option so

05:03 you want to keep this as something like

05:05 the latest version so let's now come to

05:06 the last version which is the compile

05:08 SDK version which is also set to 34 so

05:13 as the name has defines which API level

05:17 of the Android SDK you are compiling

05:19 your app with this version can be lower

05:21 than the target SDK version so if we set

05:23 this to 33 you will see we get an error

05:25 that this can't be lower than 34 the

05:28 other way around that works very well as

05:30 we just saw so this target SDK version

05:32 can be lower as the compile SDK while

05:34 the target SDK more refers to behavior

05:37 the compile SDK refers to the actual

05:40 technical apis that we can use in our

05:42 code so for example in Android 10 Dark

05:44 theme was introduced at least with the

05:46 system toggle and if we would now go

05:48 ahead and change this compile SDK

05:50 version to a version below Android 10

05:53 something like I don't know 24 for

05:54 example which is Android 7 then that

05:56 means we could not use that new feature

05:58 of dark theme in our app because we say

06:01 we compile our app with an Android

06:03 version below that version 10 and since

06:05 the set of functionalities for the for

06:07 the Dark theme was introduced in Android

06:08 10 we won't get that if we compile it

06:11 with a previous SDK you'll also see that

06:13 if we for example increase this back to

06:18 lower it doesn't matter and we change

06:20 the compile SDK to something like 28 or

06:23 so we then synchronize this and then

06:26 check in our UI package theme for

06:29 example

06:30 then we should maybe see some changes

06:32 here oops I actually changed this back

06:34 but here build version codes S is of

06:36 course not recognized anymore because

06:39 this version reference or this um field

06:41 of the version codes S was introduced

06:44 with version s of course so we can't

06:46 refer to that if we compile our app with

06:49 a version that was before Android s if

06:51 we set this back to 34 that means we

06:54 want to use all the latest Technical

06:56 apis and we sync this then you will see

06:58 that now as is recognized because when

07:02 if we take a look at what 34 is actually

07:05 what kind of version that is 34 is

07:07 upside down cake so Android 14 and

07:09 Android s was Android 12 which is API

07:12 level 31 then now we of course compiled

07:14 our app with 34 which is above 31 so we

07:17 can also refer to that field which was

07:20 introduced in Android s so you can

07:22 really think of this compile SDK field

07:24 like a time machine if you reduce this

07:25 field then your app kind of thinks that

07:28 Android SDK just wasn't as advanced as

07:31 it is now usually you just want to keep

07:32 this at the latest version possible

07:34 which is 34 at the moment and we also

07:36 want to change back the target isk to 34

07:39 so we don't get any issues with Google

07:41 Play so I hope that clarified the

07:43 differences between these versions a

07:44 little bit if you enjoy that then you

07:45 will definitely also enjoy my more

07:47 advanced Android premium courses again

07:49 there is still a big discount for only

07:50 12 more hours when this video comes

07:52 online check the first link down below

07:54 and other than that thanks so much for

07:55 watching I will see you back in the next

07:56 one have an amazing rest of your week

07:58 bye-bye