Hi there!
So there’s been a few comments already, but I thought I’d chime in an just give an official response.
While the app my “work” on android 4.1, not all the features may function as expected. Because the older android uses an older browser, they most likely do not support these new features in the framework. While it may sound disappointing, it’s important to look to the future and let these older OS fade away. The market share for 4.1 and 4.2 are starting to show this.
http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html
But if you still want to target the older device, which I can understand, the way going forward is to use crosswalk. While the app size increase may not be ideal, it’s necessary to make the older device work with the new web features.