Platform Versions

This page provides data about the relative number of active devices running a given version of the Android platform. This can help you understand the landscape of device distribution and decide how to prioritize the development of your application features for the devices currently in the hands of users. For information about how to target your application to devices based on platform version, read about API levels.

Current Distribution

The following pie chart and table is based on the number of Android devices that have accessed Google Play within a 14-day period ending on the data collection date noted below.

Data collected during a 14-day period ending on July 2, 2012

Historical Distribution

The following stacked line graph provides a history of the relative number of active Android devices running different versions of the Android platform. It also provides a valuable perspective of how many devices your application is compatible with, based on the platform version.

Notice that the platform versions are stacked on top of each other with the oldest active version at the top. This format indicates the total percent of active devices that are compatible with a given version of Android. For example, if you develop your application for the version that is at the very top of the chart, then your application is compatible with 100% of active devices (and all future versions), because all Android APIs are forward compatible. Or, if you develop your application for a version lower on the chart, then it is currently compatible with the percentage of devices indicated on the y-axis, where the line for that version meets the y-axis on the right.

Each dataset in the timeline is based on the number of Android devices that accessed Google Play within a 14-day period ending on the date indicated on the x-axis.

Last historical dataset collected during a 14-day period ending on July 2, 2012

Screen Sizes and Densities

This section provides data about the relative number of active devices that have a particular screen configuration, defined by a combination of screen size and density. To simplify the way that you design your user interfaces for different screen configurations, Android divides the range of actual screen sizes and densities into:

• A set of four generalized sizes: small, normal, large, and xlarge
• A set of four generalized densities: ldpi (low), mdpi (medium), hdpi (high), and xhdpi (extra high)

For information about how you can support multiple screen configurations in your application, see Supporting Multiple Screens.

Note: This data is based on the number of Android devices that have accessed Google Play within a 7-day period ending on the data collection date noted below.

Data collected during a 7-day period ending on July 2, 2012

Open GL Version

This section provides data about the relative number of active devices that support a particular version of OpenGL ES. Note that support for one particular version of OpenGL ES also implies support for any lower version (for example, support for version 2.0 also implies support for 1.1).

To declare which version of OpenGL ES your application requires, you should use the android:glEsVersion attribute of the <uses-feature> element. You can also use the <supports-gl-texture> element to declare the GL compression formats that your application uses.

Note: This data is based on the number of Android devices that have accessed Google Play within a 7-day period ending on the data collection date noted below.

Data collected during a 7-day period ending on July 2, 2012