Drop minSdkVersion back to 16 or whatever is set in android/build.gradle

[rodperottoni]

According to the new Places SDK migration guide, Android phones with SDKs as low as 16 are still supported.
This change will negatively impact apps used everywhere in the planet, but particularly in third-world countries where the purchase power is lower (meaning the percentage of users with outdated Android phones is significantly higher). In one of our apps available in Australia (one of the countries with the highest purchase power in the planet) we still have ~2k users on Android 16-21, so I imagine this figure would be even higher somewhere else.
I'm wondering if you'd be considering accepting a PR to lower the minSdkVersion back to 16?

Thank you.

[aforty]

Same, wondering why this is necessary. I prefer to keep the minSdkVersion as low as possible.

[tolu360]

Hi @rodperottoni, I have been super busy lately but would take another look at the build setup - I cannot recall exactly why I bumped it at the time but something must have been failing in the build process. So I live in Lagos myself so I understand your take on the number of users on SDK 21 and below. If I go as low as 16 and everything looks fine, I would be move it all the way back - otherwise I may stay on 19. I believe you have ran builds with SDK 16 already, yes?

Anyway, thanks for chiming in on this. Cheers!

[tolu360]

So heads up, minSdkVersion is back to 16 or whatever a user sets for their project. I just tagged 3.0.1 release, ensure you pull that in and update your app. Cheers!

[rodperottoni]

Really appreciate your work @tolu360.