Does Android restrict developers to support older versions of the OS?

Question

Android

Surely with the development of Android, new APIs and support for new versions of Java / Kotlin / JVM are added. Do you have to wait for example 5 years before using them because of old phones? Or are there some build tools that assemble working apk-s from modern code for both old phones and new ones? And you can use the new features of Android right away.

Answer 1

does not limit.
Large offices usually warn in advance "from version X.X We stop supporting android N.MM". Smaller companies just stupidly endure support, and you will find out about it after the fact :)

Answer 2

I don't care, everything is at the discretion of the developer. Usually, a program designed for a newer SDK, if we talk about installing via Google Play for an unsupported device, will simply not be visible for installation. APK can be installed manually, but when you start and / or call an unsupported function, it will crash with an error.

Answer 3

doesn’t
care about the part on clients - we do it on a new one and don’t buzz,
“why do we need losers” (c)