Developers are actually obliged to focus on Android 12 or later for brand spanking new apps posted within the Google Play Store, and beginning with Android 14, apps focusing on outdated variations of Android shall be fully restricted to scale back malware issues.

According to a report by 9to5Google, till now, the minimal API stage necessities solely utilized to apps submitted to the Google Play Store. Developers might nonetheless create apps for older Android variations and have customers manually set up the APK file by way of sideloading. However, Android 14’s up to date API necessities will fully limit the set up of outdated purposes, as per a latest code replace.

With this modification, customers will be unable to sideload particular APK recordsdata and app shops will be unable to put in these particular apps.

The report additional states that Android 14 gadgets would initially solely block apps which can be supposed for “older Android variations,” but this will later be extended to include Android 6.0 Marshmallow. But it’s probable that each device manufacturer will be free to choose the cutoff for outdated apps or even whether to enable it at all.

“If the minimum installable SDK version enforcement is enabled, block the install of apps using a lower target SDK version than required. This helps improve security and privacy as malware can target older SDK versions to avoid enforcement of new API behavior, Google said in a developer post. Google’s primary goal is likely to launch a crackdown on malware that infects devices (including older devices) running Android.

Read all of the Latest Tech News right here