What is the difference between min SDK version target SDK version vs compile SDK version

Question

What are the differences between  min sdk version target sdk version  and  compile sdk version   I know what min and target sdk means  but what does compile sdk version mean   In Eclipse  I have min max and target sdk  but in android studio there are these three settings

User · Accepted Answer

The min sdk version is the earliest release of the Android SDK that your application can run on  Usually this is because of a problem with the earlier APIs  lacking functionality  or some other behavioural issue   The target sdk version is the version your application was targeted to run on  Ideally  this is because of some sort of optimal run conditions  If you were to  make your app for version 19   this is where that would be specified  It may run on earlier or later releases  but this is what you were aiming for  This is mostly to indicate how current your application is for use in the marketplace  etc   The compile sdk version is the version of android your IDE  or other means of compiling I suppose  uses to make your app when you publish a  apk file  This is useful for testing your application as it is a common need to compile your app as you develop it  As this will be the version to compile to an APK  it will naturally be the version of your release  Likewise  it is advisable to have this match your target sdk version

User · Answer

The formula is  minSdkVersion  lt   targetSdkVersion  lt   compileSdkVersion  minSdkVersion - is a marker that defines a minimum Android version on which application will be able to install  Also it is used by Lint to prevent calling API that doesn   t exist  Also it has impact on Build Time  So you can use build flavors to override minSdkVersion to maximum during the development  It will help to make build faster using all improvements that the Android team provides for us  For example some features Java 8 are available only from specific version of minSdkVersion  targetSdkVersion - If AndroidOS version is  gt   targetSdkVersion it says Android system to turn on specific new  behavior changes   Please note that some of new behaviors will be turned on by default even if thought targetSdkVersion is  lt   you should read official doc  For example   Starting in Android 6 0  API level 23  Runtime Permissions were introduced  If you set targetSdkVersion to 22 or lower your application does not ask a user for some permission in run time   Starting in Android 8 0  API level 26   all notifications must be assigned to a channel or it will not appear  On devices running Android 7 1  API level 25  and lower  users can manage notifications on a per-app basis only  effectively each app only has one channel on Android 7 1 and lower    Starting in Android 9  API level 28   Web-based data directories separated by process  If targetSdkVersion is 28  and you create several WebView in different processes you will get java lang RuntimeException   compileSdkVersion - actually it is SDK Platform version and tells Gradle which Android SDK use to compile  When you want to use new features or debug  java files from Android SDK you should take care of compileSdkVersion  One more example is using AndroidX that forces to use compileSdkVersion - level 28  compileSdkVersion is not included in your APK  it is purely used at compile time  Changing your compileSdkVersion does not change runtime behavior  It can generate for example new compiler warnings errors  Therefore it is strongly recommended that you always compile with the latest SDK  You   ll get all the benefits of new compilation checks on existing code  avoid newly deprecated APIs  and be ready to use new APIs  One more fact is compileSdkVersion  gt   Support Library version You can read more about it here  Also I would recommend you to take a look at the example of migration to Android 8 0   buildToolsVersion

User · Answer

The min sdk version is the minimum version of the Android operating system required to run your application   The target sdk version is the version of Android that your app was created to run on   The compile sdk version is the the version of Android that the build tools uses to compile and build the application in order to release  run  or debug   Usually the compile sdk version and the target sdk version are the same

User · Answer

compileSdkVersion   The compileSdkVersion is the version of the API the app is compiled against  This means you can use Android API features included in that version of the API  as well as all previous versions  obviously   If you try and use API 16 features but set compileSdkVersion to 15  you will get a compilation error  If you set compileSdkVersion to 16 you can still run the app on a API 15 device   minSdkVersion   The min sdk version is the minimum version of the Android operating system required to run your application   targetSdkVersion   The target sdk version is the version your app is targeted to run on

[android] What is the difference between min SDK version/target SDK version vs. compile SDK version?

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