Why is NotificationCompat needed?

Question

In particular, I think that everything that is done with NotificationCompat can be done using the default API (level 8). What am I missing here? What is NotificationCompat that cannot be done with API 2.2?

Source: http://developer.android.com/sdk/compatibility-library.html#Notes

Answer 1

You can use things like NotificationCompat.Builder # setLargeIcon (Bitmap) to let you take full advantage of Android 3.0+ with things like a large icon, while maintaining compatibility with versions of Android prior to 3.0 that don't support such things.

Answer 2

Although its an old question, now NotificationCompat can also be used to create wearable specific notifications. Learn more about this Google Developer Guide.

http://developer.android.com/training/wearables/notifications/creating.html

Answer 3

It allows you to use the NotificationCompat.Builder class, a compatible version of Notification.Builder from API 11+. Since its name implies its implementation of the builder pattern, which seems to be its main advantage over notifications over Android 3.0.