Xamarin Forms Android Target API level Warning

Question

for the last days, whenever I deploy a new Xamarin Forms app to Google Play Store, I get the following warning when from Play Store:

Your app currently targets API level 15 and must target at least API level 26 to ensure it is built on the latest APIs optimised for security and performance.

From August 2018, new apps must target at least Android 8.0 (API level 26).

From November 2018, app updates must target Android 8.0 (API level 26).

But Target Android Version is set to "Automatic - user target framework version (API 27)" while Minimum Android version is "Override - Android 4.0.3 (API level 15)".

I don't think that from August 2018 onwards, only apps for Android 8 or higher are allowed in the Google Play Store, right? So currently I could of course ignore the warning, but what do I need to change for August?

Many thanks!

Answer 1

Counter-intuitively with Xamarin, when you set the target SDK to use the latest version it actually targets the minimum version. You need to set the target SDK to a specific version.

In other words, change from "Automatic" to a specific version.

More info here:

https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-android/issues/1163