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Android NDK Native APIs

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The Android NDK provides a set of native headers and shared library files that has gradually increased with successive releases of new Android API levels. This page explains these headers and files, and maps them to specific Android API levels.

Overview

There are two basic steps to enable your app to use the libraries that the NDK provides:

1. Include in your code the headers associated with the libraries you wish to use.
2. Tell the build system that your native module needs to link against the libraries at load time. For example, to link against /system/lib/libfoo.so , add the following line to your Android.mk file:

To list multiple libraries, use a space as a delimiter. For more information about using the LOCAL_LDLIBS variable, see Android.mk.

For all API levels, the build system automatically links the standard C libraries, the standard C++ libraries, real-time extensions, and pthread ; you do not need to include them when defining your LOCAL_LDLIBS variable. For more information about the C and C++ libraries, see Android API level 3.

Table 1 shows the correspondence between NDK-supported API levels and Android releases.

Table 1. NDK-supported API levels and corresponding Android releases.

NDK-supported API level	Android release
3	1.5
4	1.6
5	2.0
8	2.2
9	2.3 through 3.0.x
12	3.1.x
13	3.2
14	4.0 through 4.0.2
15	4.0.3 and 4.0.4
16	4.1 and 4.1.1
17	4.2 and 4.2.2
18	4.3
19	4.4
21	4.4W and 5.0

Each new release of NDK headers and libraries for a given Android API level is cumulative; you are nearly always safe if you use the most recently released headers when building your app. For example, you can use the NDK headers for Android API level 21 for an app targeting API level 16. By doing so, however, you increase your APK’s footprint.

For more information about Android API levels, see What is API Level?.

Major Native API Updates

Android API level 3

The NDK provides the following APIs for developing native code that runs on Android 1.5 system images and above.

C library

The C library headers for Android 1.5 are available through their standard names, such as stdlib.h and stdio.h . If a header is missing at build time, it’s because the header is not available on the 1.5 system image.

C++ library

An extremely minimal C++ support API is available. For more information on C++ library support, see C++ Library Support.

Android-specific log support

You can write your own wrapper macros to access this functionality. If you wish to perform logging, your native module should link to /system/lib/liblog.so . Implement this linking by including the following line in your Android.mk file:

ZLib compression library

You can use the Zlib compression library by including zlib.h and zconf.h . You must also link your native module against /system/lib/libz.so by including the following line in your Android.mk file:

Dynamic linker library

You can access the Android dynamic linker’s dlopen() , dlsym() , and dlclose() functions by including dlfcn.h . You must also link against /system/lib/libdl.so by including the following line in your Android.mk file:

Android API level 4

The NDK provides the following APIs for developing native code that runs on Android 1.6 system images and above.

OpenGL ES 1.x Library

The standard OpenGL ES headers gl.h and glext.h contain the declarations necessary for performing OpenGL ES 1.x rendering calls from native code.

To use these headers, link your native module to /system/lib/libGLESv1_CM.so by including the following line in your Android.mk file:

All Android-based devices support OpenGL ES 1.0, because Android provides an Open GL 1.0-capable software renderer that can be used on devices without GPUs.

Only Android devices that have the necessary GPU fully support OpenGL ES 1.1. An app can query the OpenGL ES version string and extension string to determine whether the current device supports the features it needs. For information on how to perform this query, see the description of glGetString() in the OpenGL specification.

Additionally, you must put a tag in your manifest file to indicate the version of OpenGL ES that your application requires.

The EGL APIs are only available starting from API level 9. You can, however, use the VM to perform some of the operations that you would get from those APIS. These operations include surface creation and flipping. For an example of how to use GLSurfaceView , see Introducing GLSurfaceView.

The san-angeles sample application provides an example of how to perform these operations, rendering each frame in native code. This sample is a small Android port of the excellent San Angeles Observation demo program.

Android API level 5

The NDK provides the following APIs for developing native code that runs on Android 2.0 system images and above.

OpenGL ES 2.0 library:

The standard OpenGL ES 2.0 headers and contain the declarations needed for performing OpenGL ES 2.0 rendering calls from native code. These rendering calls provide the ability to use the GLSL language to define and use vertex and fragment shaders.

To use OpenGL ES 2.0, link your native module to /system/lib/libGLESv2.so by including the following line in your Android.mk file:

Not all devices support OpenGL ES 2.0. An app can query the OpenGL ES version string and extension string to determine whether the current device supports the features it needs. For information on how to perform this query, see the description of glGetString() in the OpenGL specification.

Additionally, you must put a tag in your manifest file to indicate which version of OpenGL ES your application requires. For more information about the OpenGL ES settings for , see OpenGL ES.

The hello-gl2 sample application provies a basic example of how to use OpenGL ES 2.0 with the NDK.

The EGL APIs are only available starting from API level 9. You can, however, use the VM to perform some of the operations that you would get from those APIs. These operations include surface creation and flipping. For an example of how to use GLSurfaceView , see Introducing GLSurfaceView.

Note: The Android emulator does not support OpenGL ES 2.0 hardware emulation. Running and testing code that uses this API requires a real device with hardware that can support OpenGL ES 2.0.

Android API level 8

The NDK provides the following APIs for developing native code that runs on Android 2.2 system images and above.

jnigraphics

The jnigraphics library exposes a C-based interface that allows native code to reliably access the pixel buffers of Java bitmap objects. The workflow for using jnigraphics is as follows:

1. Use AndroidBitmap_getInfo() to retrieve information from JNI, such as width and height, about a given bitmap handle.
2. Use AndroidBitmap_lockPixels() to lock the pixel buffer and retrieve a pointer to it. Doing so ensures that the pixels do not move until the app calls AndroidBitmap_unlockPixels() .
3. In native code, modify the pixel buffer as appropriate for its pixel format, width, and other characteristics.
4. Call AndroidBitmap_unlockPixels() to unlock the buffer.

To use jnigraphics , include the header in your source code, and link against jnigraphics by including the following line in your Android.mk file:

Additional details about this feature are in the comments of the bitmap.h file.

Android API level 9

The NDK provides the following APIs for developing native code that runs on Android 2.3 system images and above.

EGL provides a native platform interface for allocating and managing OpenGLES surfaces. For more information about its features, see EGL Native Platform Interface.

EGL allows you to perform the following operations from native code:

• List supported EGL configurations.
• Allocate and release OpenGLES surfaces.
• Swap or flip surfaces.

The following headers provide EGL functionality:

• EGL/egl.h : the main EGL API definitions.
• EGL/eglext.h : EGL extension-related definitions.

To link against the system’s EGL library, add the following line to your Android.mk file:

OpenSL ES

Android native audio handling is based on the Khronos Group OpenSL ES 1.0.1 API.

The standard OpenSL ES headers OpenSLES.h and OpenSLES_Platform.h contain the declarations necessary for performing audio input and output from the native side of Android. The NDK distribution of the OpenSL ES also provides Android-specific extensions. For information about these extensions, see the comments in OpenSLES_Android.h and OpenSLES_AndroidConfiguration.h .

The system library libOpenSLES.so implements the public native audio functions. Link against it by adding the following line to your Android.mk file:

For more information about the OpenSL ES API, refer to $NDK/docs/Additional_library_docs/opensles/index.html , where $NDK is your NDK installation root directory.

Android native application APIs

Starting from API level 9, you can write an entire Android app with native code, without using any Java.

Note: Writing your app in native code is not, in itself, enough for your app to run in the VM. Moreover, your app must still access most features of the Android platform via JNI.

This release provides the following native headers:

For more information about these headers, see the NDK API Reference documentation, as well as the comments in the headers, themselves. Also, for more information about the larger topic of writing native apps, see Native Activities and Applications.

When you include one or more of these headers, you must also link against the libandroid.so library. To link against libandroid.so , include the following line in your Android.mk file:

Android API level 14

The NDK provides the following APIs for developing native code that runs on Android 4.0 system images and above.

OpenMAX AL

Android native multimedia handling is based on Khronos Group OpenMAX AL 1.0.1 API.

The standard OpenMAX AL headers and contain the declarations necessary for performing multimedia output from the native side of Android.

The NDK distribution of OpenMAX AL also provides Android-specific extensions. For information about these extensions, see the comments in OpenMAXAL_Android.h .

The system library libOpenMAXAL.so implements the public native multimedia functions. To link against this library, include the following line in your Android.mk file:

For more information about this topic, see $NDK/docs/openmaxal/index.html , where $NDK is the root directory of your NDK installation.

OpenSL ES

OpenSL ES support for this Android API level adds PCM support. For more information about OpenSL ES support in the NDK, see OpenSL ES.

Android API level 18

The NDK provides the following APIs for developing native code that runs on Android 4.3 system images and above.

OpenGL ES 3.0

The standard OpenGL ES 3.0 headers gl3.h and gl3ext.h contain the declarations needed for performing OpenGL ES 3.0 rendering calls from native code. These rendering calls provide the ability to use the GLSL language to define and use vertex and fragment shaders.

To use OpenGL ES 3.0, link your native module against /system/lib/libGLESv3.so by including the following line in your Android.mk file:

Not all devices support OpenGL ES 3.0. An app can query the OpenGL ES version string and extension string to determine whether the current device supports the features it needs. For information on how to perform this query, see the description of glGetString() in the OpenGL specification.

Additionally, you must put a tag in your manifest file to indicate which version of OpenGL ES your application requires. For more information about the OpenGL ES settings for , see OpenGL ES.

The gles3jni sample application provides a basic example of how to use OpenGL ES 3.0 with the NDK.

Note: The Android emulator does not support OpenGL ES 3.0 hardware emulation. Running and testing code that uses this API requires a real device with hardware that can support OpenGL ES 3.0.

Android API level 21

The NDK provides the following APIs for developing native code that runs on Android 4.3 system images and above.

OpenGL ES 3.1

The standard OpenGL ES 3.1 headers gl31.h and gl3ext.h contain the declarations needed for performing OpenGL ES 3.1 rendering calls from native code. These rendering calls provide the ability to use the GLSL language to define and use vertex and fragment shaders.

To use OpenGL ES 3.1, link your native module against /system/lib/libGLESv3.so by including the following line in your Android.mk file:

Not all devices support OpenGL ES 3.1. An app can query the OpenGL ES version string and extension string to determine whether the current device supports the features it needs. For information on how to perform this query, see the description of glGetString() in the OpenGL specification.

Additionally, you must put a tag in your manifest file to indicate which version of OpenGL ES your application requires. For more information about the OpenGL ES settings for , see OpenGL ES.

The gles3jni sample application provides a basic example of how to use OpenGL ES 3.1 with the NDK.

Note: The Android emulator does not support OpenGL ES 3.1 hardware emulation. Running and testing code that uses this API requires a real device with hardware that can support OpenGL ES 3.1.

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Android API Levels

This is an overview of all Android versions and their corresponding identifiers for Android developers. Anyone is welcome to open an issue or pull request. Happy developing!

Version	SDK / API level	Version code	Codename	Cumulative usage 1	Year
Android 12	Level 31	S	Snow Cone 2	No data	2021
Android 11	Level 30	R	Red Velvet Cake 2	33.3%	2020
	targetSdk must be 30+ for new apps by August 2021 and app updates by November 2021.
Android 10	Level 29	Q	Quince Tart 2	61.9%	2019
	targetSdk must now be 29+ for all app updates.
Android 9	Level 28	P	Pie	76.2%	2018
Android 8	Level 27 Android 8.1	O_MR1	Oreo	83.9%	2017
	Level 26 Android 8.0	O		87.2%
Android 7	Level 25 Android 7.1	N_MR1	Nougat	89.3%	2016
	Level 24 Android 7.0	N		92.4%
Android 6	Level 23	M	Marshmallow	96.0%	2015
Android 5	Level 22 Android 5.1	LOLLIPOP_MR1	Lollipop	98.2%	2015
	Level 21 Android 5.0	LOLLIPOP , L		98.6%	2014
	Jetpack Compose requires a minSdk of 21 or higher.
Android 4	Level 19 3 Android 4.4	KITKAT	KitKat	99.6%	2013
	Google Play services do not support Android versions below API level 19.
	Level 18 Android 4.3	JELLYBEAN_MR2	Jelly Bean	No data
	Level 17 Android 4.2	JELLYBEAN_MR1			2012
	Level 16 Android 4.1	JELLYBEAN
	Level 15 Android 4.0.3 – 4.0.4	ICE_CREAM_SANDWICH_MR1	Ice Cream Sandwich		2011
	Level 14 Android 4.0.1 – 4.0.2	ICE_CREAM_SANDWICH
Android 3	Level 13 Android 3.2	HONEYCOMB_MR2	Honeycomb
	Level 12 Android 3.1	HONEYCOMB_MR1
	Level 11 Android 3.0	HONEYCOMB
Android 2	Level 10 Android 2.3.3 – 2.3.7	GINGERBREAD_MR1	Gingerbread
	Level 9 Android 2.3.0 – 2.3.2	GINGERBREAD			2010
	Level 8 Android 2.2	FROYO	Froyo
	Level 7 Android 2.1	ECLAIR_MR1	Eclair
	Level 6 Android 2.0.1	ECLAIR_0_1			2009
	Level 5 Android 2.0	ECLAIR
Android 1	Level 4 Android 1.6	DONUT	Donut
	Level 3 Android 1.5	CUPCAKE	Cupcake
	Level 2 Android 1.1	BASE_1_1	None
	Level 1 Android 1.0	BASE			2008

Definitions

• minSdk (Kotlin) / minSdkVersion (Groovy): The minimum SDK version your app will support, defined in build.gradle . For example, if your minSdk is 26, this SDK version corresponse to API Level 26 and Android 8, so your app will only run on devices with Android 8 or higher.
• targetSdk (Kotlin) / targetSdkVersion (Groovy): The SDK version that your app targets, defined in build.gradle . This should always be the same as compileSdk .
• compileSdk (Kotlin) / compileSdkVersion (Groovy): The SDK version that your app compiles against, defined in build.gradle . Android Studio uses this SDK version to build your AABs and APKs. This should always be the same as targetSdk .

Notes

Cumulative usage distribution figures were last updated on November 3, 2021 using data from Statcounter GlobalStats. These figures may have changed significantly since the last update. You may update the figures yourself with a pull request. ↩

The codenames for Android 10 and above in the table are the internal codenames. Beginning with Android 10, Google dropped the usage of codenames publicly.

API Level 20 is missing from the table because it matches Android 4.4W, the version that makes Android available for Android Wear. ↩

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