APKs supporting Android Wear must have a minimum SDK version of at least 23

I received this error while uploading my APK to GooglePlay: "APKs supporting Android Wear must have a minimum SDK version of at least 23, this APK has 20."

Both my mobile app and wear app have their minimum SDKs set to 20.

I've never had any problems updating my app previously, this appears to be a new restriction.

Is it a valid error? I thought the minimum SDK for Wear is 20 [Android 4.4W / Kitkat]

I tried un-ticking: "Pricing & Distribution: Distribute your app on Android Wear [ ]", but the error still occurs.

The problem is that I have folks using SDKs 21 & 22 as well. Also, while it is a dedicated Wear app, it has some utility as a standalone mobile app as well.

Any advice?

Solution

Apparently these rejections are due to changes Google made in preparation for Android Wear 2.0 standalone apps. Sometimes this restriction is inadvertently blocking phone apps that contain Android Wear 1.0 apps due to a manifest entry.

If you have a uses-feature manifest entry in your host/phone app for android.hardware.type.watch, remove it and you should be able to upload and get past the validation. Complete manifest entry below:

<uses-feature
    android:name="android.hardware.type.watch"
    android:required="false />