WordPress for Android: No Longer Paying the Gingerbread Tax

Way back in 2011 Google released Android 4.0 (“Ice Cream Sandwich”), a major update that substantially improved the platform both for developers and for end users. This left developers with a problem: how do they take advantage of all the new features without leaving users of older devices stranded?

For most developers the answer has been to support both older and newer devices. This requires a lot of work, but it’s worth it when it means many more people can use your software.

The downside is this approach slows development, resulting in longer delays between releases. It also means developers sometimes don’t take advantage of the latest Android features, because doing so requires more time and testing to make sure the app continues to work on older devices.

We’ve followed this approach for quite a while with WordPress for Android, supporting everything from the latest devices to ones running Android 2.3 (“Gingerbread”). At…