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The original was posted on /r/androiddev by /u/RequirementJumpy4101 on 2025-10-01 09:43:58+00:00.

Hey folks,

I’ve been thinking a lot about backward compatibility lately. Is it even worth building an app that supports Android versions below 10 anymore?

The amount of work needed feels like a huge trade-off:

• Extra effort optimizing for outdated APIs.
• Dealing with inconsistent UI/UX behavior across old devices.
• Endless permission handling quirks (scoped storage vs legacy storage headaches).
• Compatibility issues with modern libraries and SDKs.
• Spending dev hours debugging issues that don’t even exist on Android 11+.

With all that, I’m wondering if the market share of those older versions justifies the hassle. Or do you all just set your minSdkVersion around 29+ and move on?

Would love to hear how others are approaching this.