Set minimum Android Version to 7.1 (api=25) #6210
Description
Why?
Support for old Android versions of third-party dependencies is waning. At this point, StreetComplete's minimum supported Android version of 5.0 is already just on-paper, for it doesn't actually work properly anymore.
-
Android Versions below 7.1 (
api=25) don't recognize certificates signed by Let's Encrypt as legitimate by default. This meant that at least the background map wouldn't load for devices running old Androids since February 2024. Users can employ a system-wide workaround, though. -
since StreetComplete 58.2 (July 2024), the login on devices running an Android below 7.0 (
api=24) is broken due to a bug in a third-party dependency. The fix for this is not complex, but it simply hasn't been done yet. It also doesn't look like there's a lot of interest to fix it by anyone. For users that are already logged in, the app continues to be usable. -
in the near future, we plan to migrate to
maplibre-composefor rendering of the map. Currently, however, the minimum supported Android version of this library is Android 6.0 (api=23) due to some tests failing on lower versions. -
MapLibre now has support for the Vulkan graphics library to render the map. The new renderer is not only faster (on semi-modern devices) but also solves many long standing rendering issues with the old OpenGL-ES-based renderer. Going forward, it is to be expected that MapLibre developers will somewhat focus their maintenance effort on Vulkan renderer.
Vulkan is supported only on Android 7.0 and greater (api=24) and guaranteed on devices running Android 10.0 and higher.
Also, currently, the renderer is not selected automatically based on the device's capability but the app developer needs to decide which renderer should be used, so StreetComplete currently uses the old, more buggy and slower, OpenGL-ES renderer.
Current Android usage
for StreetComplete, Google Play only
| Android version | Users | Cumulative Distribution |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 3 | 100.0% |
| 5.1 | 25 | 100.0% |
| 6 | 27 | 99.9% |
| 7 | 52 | 99.8% |
| 7.1 | 41 | 99.6% |
| 8 | 142 | 99.5% |
| 8.1 | 101 | 99.1% |
| 9 | 508 | 98.7% |
| 10 | 1535 | 97.1% |
| 11 | 1559 | 92.0% |
| 12 | 2494 | 86.9% |
| 13 | 4596 | 78.8% |
| 14 | 10398 | 63.7% |
| 15 | 8852 | 29.6% |
| 16 | 197 | 0.6% |
The number of users using Android 7.0 and below dropped from 190 to 107 from 2024-04 to 2025-04.
Note that this is the install base on active devices, i.e. devices that have been turned on at least once within the last 30 days. It doesn't mean that the app was opened even once. There is, in Google Play developer console a statistic about daily active users, but it is little insightful, as for anything below Android 9, it just lists "<1%" or "-".