What exactly are SDK Platforms?

Community Chit Chat
1

Hello I’m new to android development. I’m following an essentials course on Lynda. The instructor was explaining things regarding which SDK platforms and tools to install. But I’m confused about the SDK platforms. What are they exactly?

This is what is in front of me right now. https://imgur.com/a/D5G4X

I want to develop an app that supports as far back as android 4.4 for example. Should I install everything from 4.4 to 8.1?

Or is this just for testing purposes? In this case, my phone is on 7.0. Should I just stick to 7.0?

In the instructions he said install the latest version only (at that time it was 7.0) and install the Google API instalx86_64. Why bother with that too? He does mention they’ll be used to compile.

Thank you and sorry if this is a stupid question.

2

Does not seem like a stupid question to me! I just wish I knew enough to answer… I don’t know what you should install. However the one thing I am familiar with is that when developing you can target various levels of the API - the higher the level the fewer phones will be guaranteed to support it. You can find tools online that help estimate how many users are out there up to a certain API level