targeting android sdk 26 with qt-widgets?

Just got a mail from google this morning, by november 1 all android apps should target at least api level 26.
i am still on QT 5.4.1 because i did not want to go the xml-widgets way and prefer the qt-qidgets, my whole app is build around them.
The docs state that if your Qt version is earlier than v5.9, one should use the SDK tools package v25.2.5 or earlier, so i have to update QT too?
Seems this is a dead end for me? Can somebody please confirm? Thank you.

What do you mean by xml-widgets? Why can't you keep doing what you have been doing so far?

A side note - using Qt Widgets on platforms such as Android is rarely a good idea. It's better to use Qt Quick instead for your UI.