I published an app (http://bit.ly/1GfKsNG) which is meant to be for tablets only.
The AndroidManifest.xml is adjusted in the way:
<uses-sdk
android:minSdkVersion="16"
android:targetSdkVersion="21"/>
<supports-screens
android:xlargeScreens="true"
android:largeScreens="true"
android:normalScreens="false"
android:smallScreens="false"/>
and in Google Play, I also only added tablets screenshots (7" and 10") and no smartphone screenshots for the app. Still, the app shows "Designed for Phones" in the Play store.
My res/ folder structure looks like this:
/drawable-hdpi
/drawable-ldpi
/drawable-mdpi
/drawable-xhdpi
/drawable-xxhdpi
/layout
/menu
/values
I already checked related questions:
apk update for tablet, still says "Designed for phones" -> checked! I have the AndroidManifest.xml like this already
My app disappeared from "tablet" google play but still available for phone -> checked! I have the support-screens tag already
So the question is, what's the remaining part that I have overlooked to make the app "Designed for Tablets".
What is also strange is that the Google Play store shows no pending optimization tips for tablet optimisation but tells me that tablet optimisation is already finished (by promoting the app from Alpha test status to production).
You can request a manual review according to this article. Specifically, it states:
If the Optimization Tips page lists "To Do" issues that you feel don't apply to your app or affect its quality on tablets, please notify us using the Designed for Tablets Contact Form. We will review your app and update your Optimization Tips page as appropriate.
I also had the same problem a few months ago, so I used the contact form to request a manual review. They responded pretty quickly and told me that my app was in fact "designed for tablets".
you can also limit the smallest supported screen size by adding the following line:
<supports-screens
android:xlargeScreens="true"
android:largeScreens="true"
android:normalScreens="false"
android:smallScreens="false"
android:requiresSmallestWidthDp="600"
/>
Don't forget to put some tablet screens for Google Play app description.
Related
I have an app and I want to upload it on google play. But the only thing I want is to disable it for tablets, I mean what I need to write in manifest, that google play could filter my app for tablets in search results. E.g when we wrote <uses-feature> camera in our manifest, google play shows our app only on devices, that has camera feature. So the similar thing I want is not to show my app for tablets. So what I can write in manifest file, that google doesn't show my app in search results on tablets.
I've tried something like this, but when I uploaded it to google play, in available devices section I saw, that my app is available for tablets too.
<supports-screens
android:largeScreens="false"
android:largestWidthLimitDp="600"
android:normalScreens="true"
android:smallScreens="true"
android:xlargeScreens="false" />
When I access the page of my app in Google play.
I get the following message: "This app may not be optimized for your device"
I am testing with a Samsung Galaxy Tab4 10.1 - matissewifikx Android Version 5.0.2
My app is designed for tablet.
How can I tell google that my app is for tablet and remove this message?
This is the same as the old "Designed for phones" message. The guidelines for getting your app marked as good tablet app quality are here.
You need to submit a least one 7-inch tablet and one 10-inch tablet screenshots in your store listing on your Google Play Console.
For your app to be showcased in the 'Designed for tablets' list in the
Play Store, you need to upload at least one 7-inch and one 10-inch
screenshot. If you previously uploaded screenshots, make sure to move
them into the right area below.
It's not clearly written that this is related to the message `This app may not be optimized for your device. But I have submitted 7-inch and 10-inch screenshots and as soon as the update were live, the message disappeared.
Google's quality guidelines say "For apps targeting minSdkVersion value less than 13, a <supports-screens> element must be declared with both android:largeScreens="true" and android:xlargeScreens="true"." This goes into the <manifest> element of AndroidManifest.xml, e.g.:
<manifest xmlns:android=…..
<supports-screens android:largeScreens="true" android:xlargeScreens="true" />
etc
You should check the optimization tips. It will tell you exactly what is missing in your app.
In my particular case the message started showing up when I raised the
minSdkVersion up to 19. The optimization page showed that I was missing assets designed for tablets
Until now I was restricting my app to only run on tablets by having something like this in the manifest file:
<supports-screens
android:largeScreens="true"
android:normalScreens="false"
android:requiresSmallestWidthDp="600"
android:smallScreens="false"
android:xlargeScreens="true" />
I am preparing to launch on Amazon Fire for the first time and because of the following restriction: "requiresSmallestWidthDp="600", many users will be affected as the app cannot be installed on this device. I am getting the following error message: "android:requiresSmallestWidthDp = '600'; device requires '527'".
As the Fire 2015 is the most popular tablet, I would really like to allow the app to be installed on it, but at the same time I don't want my app to be installed on phones. Any suggestion on how to achieving this?
There is no clear technical distinction between a tablet and a phone, so if you really need to filter out non-tablets, you need to resort to other filters. If it's about your app's UI, the support-screens and compatible-screens are your best bets. Just remember that some phones have a higher screen resolution than some tablets.
I have an application that just designed for handsets. I want this application be visible to just handsets in Play market. Based on my research I found that it's impossible. So the solution that I found is adding <support-screen> into manifest.
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="10" android:targetSdkVersion="15"/>
<supports-screens
android:smallScreens="false"
android:normalScreens="true"
android:largeScreens="true"
android:xlargeScreens="false"
android:requiresSmallestWidthDp="320"
android:largestWidthLimitDp="360"/>
Based on what supports-screens says for largestWidthLimitDp:
This attribute allows you to force-enable screen compatibility mode by
specifying the maximum "smallest screen width" for which your
application is designed. If the smallest side of a device's available
screen is greater than your value here, the application runs in screen
compatibility mode with no way for the user to disable it.
Since size of GS3 is 720*1080px then I found 720px = 360dp.
However, the problem is Note from document:
Note: Currently, screen compatibility mode emulates only handset
screens with a 320dp width, so screen compatibility mode is not
applied if your value for android:largestWidthLimitDp is larger than
320.
Therefore it shows android:largestWidthLimitDp is useless at the moment.
I think I have two ways:
1- Filter out phablet/tablets from Play console which is not easy (it says your app is compatible with 3030 devices).
2- Displaying gentle apologies! - to say sorry we don't support your device at the moment - in run time. I think this is horrible and brings us 1 starts :(
What you think?
Any suggestion would be appreciated.
Thanks
When you list your apk in the play store (developer console, you don't have to publish it yet) you can select what devices your app is compatible with. It may be a pain, but you can run through that list and only select the phones you'd like. This is the best way for what you are trying to do.
Otherwise you'd have to resort to options that you listed above such as telling the user "Hey, we don't support your screen size". And no one wants to see that.
Since it came out the new developer console and the new PlayStore I have some problems like the one mentioned in the topic.
Lately my app is not visible from the tablets even if it was before.
But the console tells me:
Supported Devices: 2665
Excluded Devices: 0
So I have to think that there is no problem, but why this app is not available when you try to search it on PlayStore from tablets?
As suggested on the forums I put the following code in the manifest:
<supports-screens
android:resizeable="true"
android:smallScreens="true"
android:normalScreens="true"
android:largeScreens="true"
android:xlargeScreens="true"
android:anyDensity="true" />
Is there a safe way to support all tablets without exceptions?
Make sure your uses-sdk includes the android:targetSdkVersion with a value of 11 or higher.
Seems Google added this criteria (without telling anyone directly) when they release the new version of Google Play.
The Tablet App Quality Checklist under 8. Target Android versions properly
now states that
a. targetSdkVersion is declared with value 11 or higher (14 or higher is recommended)
It seems that this only applies to updates/new-releases as previous apps which lack this seems unaffected. The Developer Console also doesn't seem to be "aware" of this requirement as it clearly states xlarge devices as supported.