App Must Target API Level 36: Fix an Old WebView App for Google Play

Since August 31, 2026, Google Play refuses new apps and app updates that target below Android 16 (API level 36), and the extension Google offers app updates runs only to November 1, 2026. If your app is a website inside a WebView, the fix is not in your website: it is the Android shell around it. Rebuild that shell at API 36 with the same application ID, a higher version code and your own upload key, and Play takes it as an ordinary update.

What the Play Console message means

The upload error reads “Your app currently targets API level 35 and must target at least API level 36”, and Play Console shows a warning to the same effect before you upload. The target API level is one number in the app's Android build file, targetSdk. It tells Android which version's rules your app was built for. Your website did not change; the shell that loads it is a year behind.

Source: Google's target API level requirements, checked October 3, 2026. The other store dates, from 16 KB pages to Xcode, are on one page.

Three ways out

1. Wait for your app maker. If you built the app with a WebView app builder, check its release notes for API 36. If it ships in time, rebuild there; if not, the two options below do not depend on it.
2. Update the project yourself. In Android Studio, set compileSdk and targetSdk to 36, then test three behavior changes. Apps that target API 35 and later draw edge to edge, so your page can slide under the status bar unless the app pads it. Android 16 turns on predictive back, which needs the AndroidX back callback instead of the old onBackPressed(). And on screens 600dp and wider, Android 16 ignores orientation and resizing limits, so a portrait-only app also fills tablets and foldables sideways.
3. Rebuild the shell from your URL. Code2Native's Google Play builds use a template that targets API 36, pads your page below the status bar and above the navigation bar and the keyboard, and handles back with the AndroidX callback. The app turns with the device, so check how your site looks sideways too. You keep your website as it is.

Keep your listing: three things must match

Play accepts the new build as an update of the app you already published only when:

• The application ID is the package name shown in Play Console (for example com.example.shop).
• The version code is higher than your last release. Play refuses a version code it has already received, so look up the current one in Play Console.
• The upload key is the one your Play Console app expects. Without your own keystore, a website app here is signed with Code2Native's shared platform key, which your existing listing will refuse, so upload your keystore when you create the app. If your old app maker kept the key and your app uses Play App Signing, request an upload key reset first (see the questions below).

Before the build marks the AAB ready for Google Play, it reads targetSdk from the signed files, and the build log prints the value, so you can see it says 36 before you upload it.

What it costs here

Create the update as a new Google Play app in Code2Native: your website address, your package name, a version code above your last release, and your upload keystore. Then buy the App license for that app ($69): Release APK and AAB for this website, without the Code2Native watermark. One-time payment. The license belongs to that app's website and package name, so buy it there, not on a free Preview of the same site, which is a separate app with a generated package name. Paid wrap rebuilds are unlimited and cost 0 credits. When Play raises the target level again, you rebuild the same app instead of starting over.