What is the build version in Android?
Android contains major versions such as 10,11. each version contains more number build iteration numbers. Build a version is a number or string that tells when was application is updated.
It contains Codename, Incremental, and Releases value
For example, the Build version is Android SDK: 21 (x.x.x)
The build version gives current running version and updated date.
How do I find the app build version in Gradle ?
This short tutorial is to get the build and version number of an android application.
Android code base uses the gradle
build tool which we can configure in build.gradle
as seen below
These will be located in the project root directory.
Gradle file build.gradle: with defaultConfig
defaultConfig {
applicationId "com.cb.myapp"
minSdkVersion 20
targetSdkVersion 29
versionCode 18
versionName "1.0"
}
versionCode
is a number specifying the version number of an application submitted to the market place.
versionName
is a string specify the version name ie.2.0 or 2.0-bugs
Android has official properties for these properties
- android:versionCode
- android:versionName
In java, You can
To get retrieve this with the BuildConfig
class in java, use the following code lines
String versionName = BuildConfig.VERSION_NAME;
int versionCode = BuildConfig.VERSION_CODE;
To get retrieve this with BuildConfig
class in Kotlin, You can retrieve using the below line of code
val versionCode = BuildConfig.VERSION_CODE
val versionName = BuildConfig.VERSION_NAME
How to get system version of Android in java
Android API contains [Build.VERSION](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/Build.VERSION)
static class that contains following constants
It contains properties
Build.VERSION.RELEASE
: 9.0 or 9.2
and Build.VERSION.SDK_INT
: gives SDK version, it works in API Level 4 onwards.
String releaseName = Build.VERSION.RELEASE;
int sdkVersion = Build.VERSION.SDK_INT;
String str="Android SDK: " + sdkVersion + " (" + release +")";
Difference between versionCode and VersionName(buildnumber) in Android studio
versionCode
is a predefined value equal to android:versionCode
.
It is an Internal version number used to differentiate between multiple versions with knowing recent versions.
This versionCode
does not show apk files to real users in the play store.
It only accepts a number.
VersionName
is a string equal to the predefined android:versionName
. It is also called a build number.
It is a string format with major and minor versions, “2.1” contains 2 major versions and 1 is a minor version.
You will increase major or minor versions based on bugs or features. It will be visible to end-users in the play store.