Can Android devices with old firmware download old app versions in play store?

Question

We currently have an Android app listed in play store which supports Android 2.x and plan an update which has minimum Android 4 (having Holo theme etc).

The question now is: If we publish the update, what will happen to phones having Android 2.x? Will they see the last version supporting Android 2 in the store or won´t they see the app?

I didn´t find anything about this in the store guidelines. There is a concept for multiple APKs, but we do not want to publish new 2.x versions, we only want the availability of the old app version for Android 2 powered devices...

Answer 1

The normal flow is to have just one APK active at a time. But you can enable multiple APKs to be active by following this rules. You have to check the changes to your manifest between the two versions and see if they apply to those rules.

It worth reading the full multiple apks page to get a better understanding before making any changes/upload to developer console.

Also, note that to have multiple APKs you must switch your console view to advanced mode (because simple mode only allows to have one APK active).

This link has some guidelines specific to having multiple APKs for different API levels (which is your case).