| page.title=Device Compatibility |
| excludeFromSuggestions=true |
| @jd:body |
| |
| <div id="qv-wrapper"> |
| <div id="qv"> |
| <h2>In this document</h2> |
| <ol> |
| <li><a href="#defined">What Does "Compatibility" Mean?</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#how">Controlling Your App's Availability to Devices</a> |
| <ol> |
| <li><a href="#Features">Device features</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#Versions">Platform version</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#Screens">Screen configuration</a></li> |
| </ol> |
| </li> |
| <li><a href="#filtering">Controlling Your App's Availability for Business Reasons</a></li> |
| </ol> |
| |
| <h2>See also</h2> |
| <ol> |
| <li><a |
| href="{@docRoot}google/play/filters.html">Filtering on Google Play</a></li> |
| <li><a |
| href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/resources/providing-resources.html">Providing Resources</a></li> |
| <li><a href="http://source.android.com/compatibility/index.html" class="external-link"> |
| Android Compatibility</a></li> |
| </ol> |
| |
| |
| </div> </div> |
| |
| <p>Android is designed to run on many different types of devices, from phones |
| to tablets and televisions. As a developer, |
| the range of devices provides a huge potential audience for your app. In order for your app |
| to be successful on all these devices, it should tolerate some feature variability |
| and provide a flexible user interface that adapts to different screen |
| configurations.</p> |
| |
| <p>To facilitate your effort toward that goal, Android provides a dynamic app framework in which |
| you can provide configuration-specific <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/resources/overview.html" |
| >app resources</a> in static files (such as different XML layouts |
| for different screen sizes). Android then loads the appropriate resources based on |
| the current device configuration. So with some forethought to your app design and some additional |
| app resources, you can publish a single application package (APK) that provides an optimized user |
| experience on a variety of devices. |
| |
| <p>If necessary, however, you can specify your app's feature requirements and control |
| which types of devices can install your app from Google Play Store. This page explains how you can |
| control which devices have access to your apps, and how to prepare your apps to make sure they |
| reach the right audience. For more information about how you can make your app adapt |
| to different devices, read <a href="{@docRoot}training/basics/supporting-devices/index.html" |
| >Supporting Different Devices</a>.</p> |
| |
| |
| |
| <h2 id="defined">What Does "Compatibility" Mean?</h2> |
| |
| <p>As you read more about Android development, you'll probably encounter the term "compatibility" |
| in various situations. There are two types of compatibility: <em>device compatibility</em> |
| and <em>app compatibility</em>. |
| |
| <p>Because Android is an open source project, any hardware manufacturer can build a device |
| that runs the Android operating system. Yet, a <b>device is "Android compatible"</b> only if |
| it can correctly run apps written for the |
| <em>Android execution environment</em>. The exact details of the Android execution |
| environment are defined by the <a href="http://source.android.com/compatibility/overview.html" |
| class="external-link">Android compatibility program</a> and each device must pass the Compatibility |
| Test Suite (CTS) in order to be considered compatible.</p> |
| |
| <p>As an app developer, you don't need to worry about whether a device is Android compatible, because |
| only devices that are Android compatible include Google Play Store. So you can rest assured that |
| users who install your app from Google Play Store are using an Android compatible device.</p> |
| |
| |
| <p>However, you do need to consider whether your <b>app is compatible</b> with each potential |
| device configuration. Because Android runs on a wide range of device configurations, some features are not |
| available on all devices. For example, some devices may not include a |
| compass sensor. If your app's core functionality requires the use |
| of a compass sensor, then your app is compatible only with devices that |
| include a compass sensor.</p> |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| <h2 id="how">Controlling Your App's Availability to Devices</h2> |
| |
| <p>Android supports a variety of features your app can leverage through platform APIs. Some |
| features are hardware-based (such as a compass sensor), some are software-based (such as app |
| widgets), and some are dependent on the platform version. Not every device supports every feature, |
| so you may need to control your app's availability to devices based on your app's required |
| features.</p> |
| |
| |
| <p>To achieve the largest user-base possible for your app, you should strive to support as many |
| device configurations as possible using a single APK. In most situations, you can do so by |
| disabling optional features at runtime and <a |
| href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/resources/providing-resources.html">providing app resources</a> |
| with alternatives for different configurations (such as different layouts for different |
| screen sizes). |
| If necessary, however, you can restrict your app's availability to devices through Google Play |
| Store based on the following device characteristics:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="#Features">Device features</a> |
| <li><a href="#Version">Platform version</a> |
| <li><a href="#Screens">Screen configuration</a> |
| </ul> |
| |
| |
| <h3 id="Features">Device features</h3> |
| |
| <p>In order for you to manage your app’s availability based on device features, |
| Android defines <em>feature IDs</em> for any hardware or software feature |
| that may not be available on all devices. For instance, the |
| feature ID for the compass sensor is {@link |
| android.content.pm.PackageManager#FEATURE_SENSOR_COMPASS} and the feature ID for app widgets |
| is {@link android.content.pm.PackageManager#FEATURE_APP_WIDGETS}.</p> |
| |
| <p>If necessary, you can prevent users from installing your app when their devices don't provide a |
| given feature by declaring it with a <a href= |
| "{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-feature-element.html">{@code <uses-feature>}</a> |
| element in your app's <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/manifest-intro.html">manifest |
| file</a>.</p> |
| |
| <p>For example, if your app does not make sense on a device that lacks a compass sensor, |
| you can declare the compass sensor as required with the following manifest tag:</p> |
| |
| <pre> |
| <manifest ... > |
| <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.sensor.compass" |
| android:required="true" /> |
| ... |
| </manifest> |
| </pre> |
| |
| <p>Google Play Store compares the features your app requires to the features available on |
| each user's device to determine whether your app is compatible with each device. |
| If the device does not provide all the features your app requires, the user cannot install |
| your app.</p> |
| |
| <p>However, if your app's primary functionality does not <em>require</em> |
| a device feature, you should set the <a href= |
| "{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-feature-element.html#required">{@code required}</a> |
| attribute to {@code "false"} and check |
| for the device feature at runtime. If the app feature is not available on the current device, |
| gracefully degrade the corresponding app feature. For example, you can query whether |
| a feature is available by calling |
| {@link android.content.pm.PackageManager#hasSystemFeature hasSystemFeature()} like this:</p> |
| |
| <pre> |
| PackageManager pm = getPackageManager(); |
| if (!pm.hasSystemFeature(PackageManager.FEATURE_SENSOR_COMPASS)) { |
| // This device does not have a compass, turn off the compass feature |
| disableCompassFeature(); |
| } |
| </pre> |
| |
| <p>For information about all the filters you can |
| use to control the availability of your app to users through Google Play Store, see the |
| <a href="{@docRoot}google/play/filters.html">Filters on Google Play</a> |
| document.</p> |
| |
| <p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> Some <a href= |
| "{@docRoot}guide/topics/security/permissions.html">system permissions</a> implicitly require the |
| availability of a device feature. For example, if your app requests permission to access to {@link |
| android.Manifest.permission#BLUETOOTH}, this implicitly requires the {@link |
| android.content.pm.PackageManager#FEATURE_BLUETOOTH} device feature. You can disable filtering based |
| on this feature and make your app available to devices without Bluetooth by setting the <a href= |
| "{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-feature-element.html#required">{@code required}</a> attribute |
| to {@code "false"} in the <a href= |
| "{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-feature-element.html">{@code <uses-feature>}</a> tag. |
| For more information about implicitly required device features, read <a href= |
| "{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-feature-element.html#permissions">Permissions that Imply |
| Feature Requirements</a>.</p> |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| <h3 id="Versions">Platform version</h3> |
| |
| <p>Different devices may run different versions of the Android platform, |
| such as Android 4.0 or Android 4.4. Each successive platform version often adds new APIs not |
| available in the previous version. To indicate which set of APIs are available, each |
| platform version specifies an <a |
| href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html#ApiLevels">API level</a>. For instance, |
| Android 1.0 is API level 1 and Android 4.4 is API level 19.</p> |
| |
| <p>The API level allows you to declare the minimum version with which your app is |
| compatible, using the <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html">{@code |
| <uses-sdk>}</a> manifest tag and its <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html#min">{@code minSdkVersion}</a> attribute.</p> |
| |
| <p>For example, the <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/providers/calendar-provider.html">Calendar |
| Provider</a> APIs were added in Android 4.0 (API level 14). If your app cannot function without |
| these APIs, you should declare API level 14 as your app's minimum supported |
| version like this:</p> |
| |
| <pre> |
| <manifest ... > |
| <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="14" android:targetSdkVersion="19" /> |
| ... |
| </manifest> |
| </pre> |
| |
| <p>The <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html#min">{@code |
| minSdkVersion}</a> attribute declares the minimum version with which your app is compatible |
| and the <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html#target">{@code |
| targetSdkVersion}</a> attribute declares the highest version on which you've optimized |
| your app.</p> |
| |
| <p>Each successive version of Android provides compatibility for apps that were built using |
| the APIs from previous platform versions, so your app should always be compitible with future |
| versions of Android while using the documented Android APIs.</p> |
| |
| <p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> |
| The <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html#target">{@code |
| targetSdkVersion}</a> attribute does not prevent your app from being installed on platform |
| versions that are higher than the specified value, |
| but it is important because it indicates to the system whether your |
| app should inherit behavior changes in newer versions. If you don't update the |
| <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html#target">{@code |
| targetSdkVersion}</a> to the latest version, the system assumes that your |
| app requires some backward-compatibility behaviors when running on the latest version. |
| For example, among the <a href="{@docRoot}about/versions/android-4.4.html#Behaviors" |
| >behavior changes in Android 4.4</a>, alarms created with the {@link android.app.AlarmManager} APIs |
| are now inexact by default so the system can batch app alarms and preserve system power, |
| but the system will retain the previous API behavior for your app if your target API level |
| is lower than "19".</p> |
| |
| <p>However, if your app uses APIs added in a more recent |
| platform version, but does not require them for its primary functionality, |
| you should check the API level at runtime and gracefully degrade |
| the corresponding features when the API level is too low. In this case, |
| set the <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html#min">{@code |
| minSdkVersion}</a> to the lowest value possible for your app's primary functionality, |
| then compare the current system's version, {@link android.os.Build.VERSION#SDK_INT}, to one the |
| codename constants in {@link android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES} that corresponds to the |
| API level you want to check. For example:</p> |
| |
| <pre> |
| if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB) { |
| // Running on something older than API level 11, so disable |
| // the drag/drop features that use {@link android.content.ClipboardManager} APIs |
| disableDragAndDrop(); |
| } |
| </pre> |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| <h3 id="Screens">Screen configuration</h3> |
| |
| <p>Android runs on devices of various sizes, from phones to tablets and TVs. |
| In order to categorize devices by their screen type, Android defines two characteristics for |
| each device: screen size (the physical size of the screen) and screen density (the physical |
| density of the pixels on the screen, known as <acronym title="dots per inch">DPI</acronym>). |
| To simplify the different configurations, Android generalizes these variants into groups that make |
| them easier to target:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li>Four generalized sizes: small, normal, large, and xlarge.</li> |
| <li>And several generalized densities: mdpi (medium), hdpi (hdpi), xhdpi (extra high), |
| xxhdpi (extra-extra high), and others.</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>By default, your app is compatible with all screen sizes and densities, |
| because the system makes the appropriate adjustments to your UI layout and image |
| resources as necessary for each screen. However, you should optimize the user experience for each |
| screen configuration by adding specialized layouts for different screen sizes and |
| optimized bitmap images for common screen densities.</p> |
| |
| <p>For information about how to create alternative resources for different screens |
| and how to restrict your app to certain screen sizes when necessary, read <a |
| href="{@docRoot}training/basics/supporting-devices/screens.html">Supporting Different Screens</a>. |
| </p> |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| <h2 id="filtering">Controlling Your App's Availability for Business Reasons</h2> |
| |
| <p>In addition to restricting your app's availability based on device characteristics, |
| it’s possible you may need to restrict your app’s availability for |
| business or legal reasons. For instance, an app that displays train schedules |
| for the London Underground is unlikely to be useful to users outside the United |
| Kingdom. For this type of situation, Google Play Store provides |
| filtering options in the developer console that allow you to control your app’s |
| availability for non-technical reasons such as the user's locale or wireless carrier.</p> |
| |
| <p>Filtering for technical compatibility (such as required hardware components) |
| is always based on information contained within your APK file. But |
| filtering for non-technical reasons (such as geographic locale) is always |
| handled in the Google Play developer console.</p> |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| <div class="next-docs"> |
| <div class="col-6"> |
| <h2 class="norule">Continue reading about:</h2> |
| <dl> |
| <dt><a |
| href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/resources/providing-resources.html">Providing Resources</a></dt> |
| <dd>Information about how Android apps are structured to separate app resources from the |
| app code, including how you can provide alternative resources for specific device |
| configurations. |
| </dd> |
| <dt><a href="{@docRoot}google/play/filters.html">Filters on Google Play</a></dt> |
| <dd>Information about the different ways that Google Play Store can prevent your app |
| from being installed on different devices.</dd> |
| </dl> |
| </div> |
| <div class="col-6"> |
| <h2 class="norule">You might also be interested in:</h2> |
| <dl> |
| <dt><a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/security/permissions.html" |
| >System Permissions</a></dt> |
| <dd>How Android restricts app access to certain APIs with a permission system that requires |
| the user's consent for your app to use those APIs.</dd> |
| </dl> |
| </div> |
| </div> |