Difference between android-support-v7-appcompat and android-support-v4

by

UPDATE

There are many changes done into support library since this question was answered. Good thing is, it is very well documented also. So you must read Support Library Documentation for more details and more available support library.

Starting with Support Library release 26.0.0 (July 2017), the minimum
supported API level across most support libraries has increased to
Android 4.0 (API level 14) for most library packages.

Below is difference from Support Library Packages:

v4 Support Library

This library is designed to be used with Android 1.6 (API level 4) Android 2.3 (API level 9) Android 4.0 (API level 14) and higher. It includes the largest set of APIs compared to the other
libraries, including support for application components, user
interface features, accessibility, data handling, network
connectivity, and programming utilities.

v7 Libraries

There are several libraries designed to be used with Android 2.1 (API level 7) Android 2.3 (API level 9) Android 4.0 (API level 14) and higher. These libraries provide specific feature sets and
can be included in your application independently from each other.

v7 appcompat library

This library adds support for the Action Bar user interface design pattern.

Note:
This library depends on the v4 Support Library. If you are using Ant or Eclipse, make sure you include the v4 Support Library as part
of this library’s classpath.

So yes you need both jars if you want to use v7.

Update for android-support-v13.jar

v13 Support Library

This interface was deprecated in API level 27.1.0. Use Fragment instead of the framework Fragment.

v13 Support Library

This library is designed to be used for Android 3.2 (API level 13) and higher. It adds support for the Fragment user interface pattern
with the (FragmentCompat) class and additional fragment support
classes

When you see the package details it has a class FragmentCompat as given in definition. So it has not the all classes of appcompat library.

More Related Contents:

  1. Android 4.3 menu item showAsAction=”always” ignored
  2. Using android vector Drawables on pre Lollipop crash
  3. Use Tab with new ToolBar (AppCompat v7-21)
  4. ViewPager.setOffscreenPageLimit(0) doesn’t work as expected
  5. Android Support Repo 46.0.0 with Android Studio 2.3
  6. getView returning null when fragment has been created from an activity
  7. No ActionBar in PreferenceActivity after upgrade to Support Library v21
  8. Is there any reason to use the support.v4 library in Android?
  9. How can I access getSupportFragmentManager() in a fragment?
  10. How can I force the Action Bar to be at the bottom in ICS?
  11. MenuItemCompat.getActionView always returns null
  12. Hide ICS back home task switcher buttons
  13. How to get ActionBar view?
  14. The import android.support.v7.app cannot be resolved
  15. Broadcast receiver not working in ICS if the app is not started atleast once
  16. Status bar turns white and does not show content behind it
  17. Android support library error after updating to 23.3.0
  18. How to detect “Recent Apps” system button clicks (Honeycomb+)
  19. SearchView getActionView returning null
  20. Fragment must be a public static class to be properly recreated from instance state
  21. Android support library setup with maven
  22. Up navigation broken on JellyBean?
  23. Android 4.0: widgets not appearing?
  24. Android error – Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: android.support.v4.util.SparseArrayCompat
  25. Android v21 Theme.Appcompat color accent is ignored, no padding on dialogs
  26. Fixing Error in styles.xml to generate R.java : No resource found name ‘Theme.AppCompat.Light’
  27. What do these Android logcat warnings mean?
  28. Something’s wrong in Corner radius Android
  29. How to customize individual tabs? (changing background color, indicator color and text color)
  30. Capture media button on Android >=4.0 (works on 2.3)

Leave a Comment