Difference between v4 and v13 suport library in Android

android, android-support-library

Solution

What is use of support library v13 if we have already native Fragment classes

You may not want to use the native `Fragment` classes. For example, nested fragments was only added to the native `Fragment` classes in API Level 17 -- if you wanted nested fragments on older devices, you have to use the backport.

Why they divided it into v4 and v13 if we have all features of v13 in v4 ?

Not every class in `support-v13` works back to API Level 4. Notably, `support-v13` has implementations of `FragmentPagerAdapter` and `FragmentStatePagerAdapter` that work with native fragments. `support-v13` is a superset, not identical to, `support-v4`.

Problem

Hello I was checking support library page on android doc where I found v13 library also. I use v4 in my projects. I understood that v4 is required If I set the minSDKVersion between 4-12 and If I set it to >=13 then I should use v13 support library. Question What is the use of support library v13 if we have already native `Fragment` classes if I set minSDKVersion to 13 because native `Fragment` is already from API 11 http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Fragment.html. and Why they divided it into v4 and v13 if we have all features of v13 in v4 ?

Original source