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Drop support for Android 5 / Require Android 6 / API 23 #13438
Description
Unfortunately we will soon have to bump minSdk from 21 to 23, effectively preventing NewPipe from being installed on Android 5 devices. The main reason for this is that Google's Jetpack/AndroidX libraries, which are fundamental to any Android project, have been requiring API 23 since June 2025. For roughly one year we decided to just not update those libraries, but this stance is increasingly problematic as old library versions miss important fixes and useful features.
The statistics on how many users are still using Android 5 devices seem to have changed a bit in recent times. But if the latest statistics are correct, we would have to drop <1% of devices.
| Android Studio: 0.3% (Dec 2025) | Statcounter: 0.89% (Mar 2026) | Statcounter: 2.3% (Nov 2025) |
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 (image from apilevels.com but with data from Statcounter Nov 2025) |
More than 4 years passed since we had to bump minSdk from 19 (Android 4.4) to 21 (Android 5). Back then, we dropped 1.4% of devices according to Android Studio: #7602. For reference, Google is only providing security updates for Android 14+, and Android 5 last received a security update in 2018 (source).
There are other reasons that would justify increasing minSdk (see #7602, e.g. slightly reduced maintenance burden), but they would be quite minor, and if it wasn't for Google dropping API 21 support for Jetpack/AndroidX libraries we could have waited some more years without major problems. It is sad to have to drop support for some devices.
For comparison:
Activity
theimpulson commentedon Apr 19, 2026
Related: #13056
absurdlylongusername commentedon Apr 19, 2026
Before doing this, would it be worth putting some announcement in the app to let people know we are doing this?
wb9688 commentedon Apr 19, 2026
I would only do that for the Android versions that will lose the support, as not to annoy the other users with an irrelevant message.
Of course I would also clearly announce this decision to drop support for that Android version in a release blog post (for a release before it will lose support, as well as for the release actually dropping support).
Stypox commentedon Apr 20, 2026
Ah wait but the PR is already merged. Maybe we can do a release that only adds a popup for API 21-22 users, together with a blogpost?
theimpulson commentedon Apr 20, 2026
I feel a blogpost should be enough. Reasons for one more release for unsupported platforms will keep appearing if we keep looking for it.
absurdlylongusername commentedon Apr 21, 2026
@theimpulson I agree, that makes sense.
dftf-stu commentedon Apr 23, 2026
While I rarely use NewPipe or Tubular on an Android 5.1 device now, both apps have proven useful given the official YouTube app hasn't been supported on there for a few years now (the final update to the YouTube app was version 16.40.36, from 2021, October 16, but the app could still be used for a year or two after; now it just shows an "access YouTube via Chrome" message. The final Google Chrome for Android 5.1 was version 94.0.4606.85, on 2021, October 12).
Firefox lasted a bit longer (v143.0.4 on 2025, October 5 being the final update for Android 5.x), but soon there won't be any way to watch YouTube even via the m.youtube.com mobile site on that OS. Support can't last forever, I guess -- but if you're aware of any forks of NewPipe that may look to continue support on older Android versions (or even a rival app, or web-browser), it might be worth mentioning that in such a message to offer something users on that platform could migrate to?
Stypox commentedon May 1, 2026
@dftf-stu good idea, I mentioned that we could list legacy maintained versions in the blogpost: https://newpipe.net/blog/pinned/announcement/drop-android-5/
Closing since v0.28.6 was released with the popup and explanation.
rchltmedia commentedon May 2, 2026
so what's happen next for android 5 platform? using newpipe-legacy?
ShareASmile commentedon May 2, 2026
BravePipe is one option, it supports (at the time of writing) down to Android 4.4 (Kitkat).
Link to Releases have been given in this comment. It would be better to contact BravePipe maintainer in their issue tracker for more.
codeninja-ru commentedon May 6, 2026
Thank you for the great app and Goodbye
android 5 user