@87c34046 @d82adc62 Yep, looks like it. I guess the idea is that there's a single config for all of AndroidX with a monotonically increasing version then. 

 @d82adc62 @87c34046 There is a mechanism in the platform for AndroidX libraries to relax SDK restrictions (but it would apply to any code in the APK, not just the AndroidX code): https://source.android.com/docs/core/runtime/signed-config

Not sure whether it's actually used in practice - I can't see any references to android.settings.global in the AndroidX repo, but it's possible it's injected during the release/build process.