Do I need to install an Intel x86 Atom system image for all API levels?

Question

I am new to Android development and just installed the new Android sdk with Eclipse and ADT. From this question, I knew about installing the Intel X86 system image. But I have one confusion about installing Intel x86 for which I cannot find any solution on the Internet.

In the SDK Manager, the installation options for the Intel x86 system image are displayed for each API level, as shown in the figure.

image here (since I don't have privileges. Hope someone fixes it)

So my question is: do we need an x86 system image for all API levels?
(I am making an application that will be supported from Android chips to kitkat.)

Answer 1

Short answer: no, you do not need. When I am actively developing the application, I will select the target API level and simply use the emulator for this API. In any case, as soon as one phone develops - while you are working, you can use only one at a time, in any case.

When it comes time to check, however, my advice is to run your application on as many different configurations as you can get, including different API levels. Now you need to keep in mind that, despite the fact that the emulator images are official and provided by Google, they do not replace testing on real devices. Your application will have different performance characteristics in the emulator, and often device-specific errors (industry terms "quirks") that you will not find with the emulator (and some errors that you find only on the emulator).

So my general answer is no, not really. Download and use any emulator of your target API, possibly download and also develop an emulator from time to time for your minimum API, and then try as much as possible to perform the final testing on real devices, only backtracking to emulators when you cannot get real device with a specific configuration.

Answer 2

If you have not developed an Intel x86 system device, you do not need to install it.