I have an Android app, and typically use retained bundles in order to support old devices. For example, my latest release has a new bundle that targets SDK 33 with a minimum SDK 26. However, it includes several retained bundles, with the oldest one targeting SDK 27 with minimum SDK 19. This has worked well for a long time. But now Play Store is saying that in order to update the app after August 31 2023, there may be no retained bundles that target an SDK version < 33. So that seems to mean that I must remove all retained bundles from before a year ago that would not target SDK 33. Am I understanding that correctly? What then is the way to support older devices without having to support a lower minimum SDK in the latest version?
I sent these questions to Play Console Support, but their boilerplate answers weren't very clear.
Retained bundles will still be supported in Play. This is officially announced
Can I still release updates to my app that include retained bundles which target older Target API versions?
Yes, existing & retained bundles will still be able to be used in new releases, identical to previous years. Only new bundles which don’t comply with the updated Target API requirements will be unable to be released.
However, new bundles must target SDK 33.