Admob Requires Api-13 Or Later Can I Not Deploy On Old Api-8 Phones?

Google Admob requires that I have to compile my project with API-13 or later. To be able to use admob sdk. My application is meant for mobiles with api-8 or later. Does it mean if

Solution 1:

Does it mean if I compile my app with Api-13 or later I have to abandon my app support for older phones before Api-13 ?

No. If you read the AdMob documentation, "The Google AdMob Ads SDK for Android requires a run-time of Android 1.5 or later (set android:minSdkVersion to at least 3 in your AndroidManifest.xml). This means you can develop with the latest version of the Android SDK and your app will still run on an earlier Android version (1.5 minimum)."

My understanding is that since admob requires minimum api-13 to compile , it means it calls functions which are not available on old phones

It conditionally "calls function which are not available on old phones". This is fairly commonplace in Android development -- you use Build.VERSION.SDK_INT to determine if you are on a newer device and do one thing with newer APIs, but do something else on older devices.

Solution 2:

in the android manifest i left the mini sdk as 8 . I then used ADT .. right click on project went to properties and set the target API to 13. tested on both devices with different API, works.