android studio 3.5 just released and I installed it, but there is an abnormal thing. and that is the ability "Instant Run" is removed and instead introduced a new thing called "Apply Changes".
the negative point about this ability is that it only works in device with API 26 and above.
is there any way to use this ability for devices with API level below 26?
I faced the same problem. Before upgrade to AS 3.5, I used this function on API 23. But it seems that starting from version 3.5 it is no longer available.
There is a page on the official site: https://developer.android.com/studio/run/index.html
Before 3.5 release:
Apply Changes action is available only when you meet the following conditions:
- Build your app using a debug build variant.
- Use Android plugin for Gradle version 2.3.0 or higher.
- Set minSdkVersion to 15 or higher in your app's module-level build.gradle > file.
- Deploy your app to a target device running Android 5.0 (API level 21) and > higher.
After:
Apply Changes actions are only available when you meet the following conditions:
- You build the APK of your app using a debug build variant.
- You deploy your app to a target device or emulator that runs Android 8.0 (API level 26) or higher.
So if you really need this feature for pre-Oreo, it seems that the only option is to use older versions of the AS. Until more knowledgeable people have not found a hack or some workaround :)