My SettingsActivity currently extends the Android Studio generated class, AppCompatPreferenceActivity which extends PreferenceActivity. Each of the preference screens in the activity are displayed using a PreferenceFragment; which, as of API level 28, is deprecated. The documentation states you should use the PreferenceFragmentCompat class from the support library as an alternative.
The issue is that PreferenceFragmentCompat extends android.support.v4.app.Fragment (instead of android.app.Fragment) which the PreferenceActivity does not support. And there is no PreferenceActivityCompat to fill the role of the of the now inconsequential PreferenceActivity.
Further confusing the issue; the new androidx.preference support library includes its own PreferenceFragment (which extends android.app.Fragment) and PreferenceFragmentCompat (which extends the new androidx.fragment.app.Fragment).
I could always recreate the functionality of the PreferenceActivity with my own classes, but why would the documentation recommend using the PreferenceFragmentCompat without a viable alternative to the PreferenceActivity? Am I missing something, or is the current state of the preference libraries not functional?
The SettingsActivity works as-is for now, but I usually like to try to get ahead of the curve, especially when something becomes deprecated.
