Unity 6: 1 out of 212 Android devices compatible via Amazon Apps

After a week of installing and uninstalling components using both Unity and Android Studio, I still get 1 out of 212 devices compatible. Nexus 5 hammerhead and thats it… please help

Unity minimum API level is set at 23 and doesnt allow me lower, how do I do to set it lower, lets say 19?

This might be possible with a custom android ask version etc, but that can be tricky to set up.

I highly doubt that an SDK version of 23 will limit your reach thát much.
If you really need the lower SDK version, maybe stick with 2022LTS

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That is the screenshot, and I’m not using custom plugins; it’s pure Unity 6 (6000.0.30f1). I need help with this, as it doesn’t seem like the issue is on my end.

Do you use OpenGLES3?
Do you use custom publishing settings for Android?

The answer probably lies in the Manifest. Unity 2023+ requires Android SDK 23 at a minimum, but you might have other project settings limiting your device support.

Unity either generates its own default Android Manifest file, or allows you to provide a custom one. Here’s the Unity docs page on Manifests, but I would also suggest reviewing Google’s own Android Manifest docs, as those offer more detailed explanations of each tag & property. (Edit: Amazon also offers some tips on device-filtering.)

Look over the Manifest that Unity built for your project, and see if anything in there might be adding an unexpected limitation (e.g. graphics level, screen-size or orientation, required device features/configuration, etc).

Most of those can be fixed in Unity’s project settings, otherwise you may need to follow the docs to make a customized Manifest.

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No custom setting, everything default. One thing I noticed: the lowest API level is 23. You guys are leaving behind hundreds of Android devices. Is there a way to lower it to 19? I don’t see a way to get it that low, as the lowest is 23 by default.

you can’t change it?

It looks like it’s not possible with the tools in Unity, and from Android Studio after installing SDK, JDK, NDK, etc. I should be able to run down to 17, but it’s stuck at 23.

I’m pretty sure like 99% of devices are above android 8 by now anyway.

Thats probably not the problem?

Edit: Correction apparently maybe 5% of all devices are below 6. Thats probably not a relevant number.

Then you are 99% wrong. It renders hundreds of devices incompatible. I have 1 out of 212 devices compatible.

Edit: The issue arises at the time of publishing. I was able to test on different devices I have physically present before publishing

Edit: I contacted Amazon to see if they can do anything to help in this matter and linked this conversation as well.

How? Like the Moto G is 10 years old those probably mostly don’t even work anymore.

Is their app listing just entirely archaic?

Like just look at any market share levels, these devices Android 4.3 or 5 on them.

My god the droid maxx is listed there, that’s from 2012…

Why would amazon even have these listed?

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I am waiting for Amazon to answer. I have the same questions, unless the goal is to render devices obsolete by software. That would affect not only consumers but also developers, benefiting only device retailers.

And it saves you time. Optimizing a project for 10 year old devices can be near impossible sometimes. For the 3 people still on those, it might not be worth 30 hours

Sure, but for some reason, only 1 out of 212 devices is supported. Why aren’t even the new devices supported? All of them have minSdkVersion 22 or lower

That I do not know. And I cannot say more about that without project access.
Let us know what Amazon says tho

Unity 2023 only supports Android SDK 23+.

All the [major/Western] App Stores rotate older devices out of support. People still have them, but they won’t be able to install or update apps, and the Stores won’t allow you to upload an app with such an old minimum version. Mostly it’s for security, since carriers don’t patch old devices.

Amazon has a lot of old Kindles in circulation, so they support older Android versions than Google Play.

If you want to support minSDK 19, then you’ll need to use an older version of Unity. No hacks, no Amazon advice, are gonna change that.

[Context: 12+yrs as a professional enterprise mobile dev]