Target Android 16 (API level 36)

[peachbits]

CHANGELOG

Does this branch warrant an entry to the CHANGELOG?

• Yes
• No

Dependencies

none

Requirements

If you have made any visual changes to the GUI. Make sure you have:

• Tested on iOS device
• Tested on Android device
• Tested on small-screen device (iPod Touch)
• Tested on large-screen device (tablet)

No visual changes, but this does change Android platform behavior. Device testing is in progress via QA on the test-paneer build rather than checked off here — see QA focus below.

Description

Google Play rejects app updates targeting below API 36 after Aug 30, 2026 (Asana task). The Play Console policy warning reads "App updates with these issues will be rejected."

The compliance change itself is two lines in android/build.gradle. The other three files exist because of what API 36 turns on.

Predictive back is the real payload

Targeting API 36 enables predictive back by default, and Android then stops calling onBackPressed and stops dispatching KEYCODE_BACK. React Native 0.79's ReactActivity only overrides onBackPressed and registers no OnBackInvokedCallback, so every BackHandler listener in the app would go silently dead:

• @react-navigation/native's useBackButton — and we use the JS stack (@react-navigation/stack v6), not native-stack, so all back navigation routes through BackHandler
• EdgeModal.tsx:123 — back no longer dismisses modals
• useBackButtonToast.tsx:34 — the "tap again to exit" guard on the wallet list

android:enableOnBackInvokedCallback="false" opts out, keeping back behavior byte-for-byte identical to what ships today.

React Native 0.86 fixes this properly — it ships its own OnBackPressedCallback shim (its ReactActivity carries the comment "Due to enforced predictive back on targetSdk 36, onBackPressed() is disabled by default") and moves to AGP 8.12. Both the opt-out and the suppressUnsupportedCompileSdk line come back out with that upgrade. This PR exists because RN 0.86 lands after the Play deadline.

Why buildToolsVersion stays at 35.0.0

Deliberate, not an oversight. AGP 8.8.2's ToolsRevisionUtils has MIN_BUILD_TOOLS_REV = DEFAULT_BUILD_TOOLS_REVISION = 35.0.0 — and so does AGP 8.12.0, so it remains the default even after the RN upgrade. The "build-tools must be ≥ compileSdk" rule predates AGP sourcing aapt2 from Maven (com.android.tools.build:aapt2:8.8.2-12006047) rather than from the build-tools folder. Nothing in the repo shells out to zipalign/apksigner/aapt directly.

Verification

• ./gradlew :app:assembleDebug succeeds (JDK 17)
• aapt2 dump badging on the resulting APK confirms targetSdkVersion:'36', compileSdkVersion='36'
• aapt2 dump xmltree confirms enableOnBackInvokedCallback(0x0101066c)=false survives manifest merge into the packaged binary manifest
• AGP's "tested up to compileSdk 35" warning is gone from the build log
• npm run prepare + full jest suite pass (95 suites, 571 tests)

Not verified here: the runtime opt-out on a real Android 16 device. I confirmed the flag is in the shipped manifest, but had no Android 16 phone image available. That is what the QA pass covers.

QA focus

Pushed to test-paneer. Expected result is no observable change — anything QA notices is a regression.

Requires an Android 16+ device; nothing reproduces below that. Test both gesture back and 3-button back.

1. Back from any nested scene pops rather than exiting the app. If the opt-out failed, this breaks everywhere at once.
2. Back dismisses modals rather than backgrounding the app.
3. Wallet list: first back shows "tap again to exit", second logs out.

Secondary, lower risk: API 36 makes the app ignore orientation and resizability restrictions on screens ≥600dp. Our manifest sets none of those, so nothing is lost, but tablets and foldables now get free rotation and multi-window. Worth a tablet look.

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Note

Medium Risk
Targeting API 36 changes platform behavior on Android 16+ devices; the predictive-back opt-out is critical—if it fails manifest merge or is ignored at runtime, back navigation could break app-wide.

Overview
Google Play compliance: compileSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion move from 35 to 36 so updates remain acceptable after the Aug 30, 2026 deadline.

Back navigation preserved: API 36 enables predictive back by default, which would break React Native 0.79’s legacy back path and silence BackHandler (navigation stack pops, modal dismiss in EdgeModal, and the wallet-list “tap again to exit” flow in useBackButtonToast). The app sets android:enableOnBackInvokedCallback="false" on <application> with an in-manifest comment until RN 0.86.

Build noise: android.suppressUnsupportedCompileSdk=36 is added because RN 0.79’s AGP 8.8.2 is only validated through SDK 35; buildToolsVersion stays at 35.0.0 per the PR rationale.

CHANGELOG documents the user-visible expectation: no change in back-button behavior.

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[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Note

Copilot was unable to run its full agentic suite in this review.

Updates the Android build configuration to target Android 16 / API 36 while minimizing build noise and preserving existing back-button behavior on React Native 0.79.

Changes:

• Bump compileSdkVersion / targetSdkVersion to 36.
• Suppress AGP “unsupported compileSdk” warnings while RN pins an older AGP.
• Opt out of predictive back via manifest to keep BackHandler-based navigation working.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

File	Description
android/gradle.properties	Suppresses AGP warnings when compiling with SDK 36.
android/build.gradle	Raises compile/target SDK to 36.
android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml	Disables predictive back callback to preserve legacy back behavior.
CHANGELOG.md	Documents the SDK targeting change and rationale.

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