Although we recommend that you design your application to function properly on multiple configurations of screen size and density, you can instead choose to limit the distribution of your application to certain types of screens, such as only tablets and other large devices or only handsets and similar-sized devices. To do so, you can enable filtering by external services such as Google Play by adding elements to your manifest file that specify the screen configurations your application supports.
However, before you decide to restrict your application to certain screen configurations, you should understand the techniques for supporting multiple screens and implement them to the best of your ability. By supporting multiple screens, your application can be made available to the greatest number of users with different devices, using a single APK.
Because the system generally scales applications to fit larger screens well, you shouldn't
need to filter your application from larger screens. As long as you follow the Best Practices for Screen
Independence, your application should work well on larger screens such as tablets. However, you
might discover that your application can't scale up well or perhaps you've decided to publish two
versions of your application for different screen configurations. In such a case, you can use the {@code
The {@code
For example, if your application is compatible with only small and normal size screens,
regardless of screen density, you must specify eight different {@code
<manifest ... >
<compatible-screens>
<!-- all small size screens -->
<screen android:screenSize="small" android:screenDensity="ldpi" />
<screen android:screenSize="small" android:screenDensity="mdpi" />
<screen android:screenSize="small" android:screenDensity="hdpi" />
<screen android:screenSize="small" android:screenDensity="xhdpi" />
<!-- all normal size screens -->
<screen android:screenSize="normal" android:screenDensity="ldpi" />
<screen android:screenSize="normal" android:screenDensity="mdpi" />
<screen android:screenSize="normal" android:screenDensity="hdpi" />
<screen android:screenSize="normal" android:screenDensity="xhdpi" />
</compatible-screens>
...
<application ... >
...
<application>
</manifest>
Note: Although you can also use the {@code
If you don't want your app to be used on handsets (perhaps your app truly makes sense only on a
large screen) or you need time to optimize it for smaller screens, you can prevent small-screen
devices from downloading your app by using the {@code
For example, if you want your application to be available only to tablet devices, you can declare the element in your manifest like this:
<manifest ... >
<supports-screens android:smallScreens="false"
android:normalScreens="false"
android:largeScreens="true"
android:xlargeScreens="true"
android:requiresSmallestWidthDp="600" />
...
<application ... >
...
</application>
</manifest>
This describes your app's screen-size support in two different ways:
The first technique is for devices that are running Android 3.1 or older, because those devices declare their size based on generalized screen sizes. The {@code requiresSmallestWidthDp} attribute is for devices running Android 3.2 and newer, which includes the capability for apps to specify size requirements based on a minimum number of density-independent pixels available. In this example, the app declares a minimum width requirement of 600dp, which generally implies a 7"-or-greater screen.
Your size choice might be different, of course, based on how well your design works on different screen sizes; for example, if your design works well only on screens that are 9" or larger, you might require a minimum width of 720dp.
The catch is that you must compile your application against Android 3.2 or higher in order to use
the requiresSmallestWidthDp attribute. Older versions don't understand this attribute
and will raise a compile-time error. The safest thing to do is develop your app against the platform
that matches the API level you've set for minSdkVersion. When you're making final preparations to build your release candidate, change the build target to
Android 3.2 and add the requiresSmallestWidthDp attribute. Android versions older than
3.2 simply ignore that XML attribute, so there's no risk of a runtime failure.
For more information about why the "smallest width" screen size is important for supporting different screen sizes, read New Tools for Managing Screen Sizes.
Caution: If you use the {@code
Remember, you should strive to make your application available to as many devices as possible by
applying all necessary techniques for supporting multiple screens. You should
use {@code
Although we recommend that you publish one APK for your application, Google Play allows you to publish multiple APKs for the same application when each APK supports a different set of screen configurations (as declared in the manifest file). For example, if you want to publish both a handset version and a tablet version of your application, but you're unable to make the same APK work for both screen sizes, you can actually publish two APKs for the same application listing. Depending on each device's screen configuration, Google Play will deliver it the APK that you've declared to support that device's screen.
Beware, however, that publishing multiple APKs for the same application is considered an advanced feature and most applications should publish only one APK that can support a wide range of device configurations. Supporting multiple screen sizes, especially, is within reason using a single APK, as long as you follow the guide to Supporting Multiple Screens.
If you need more information about how to publish multiple APKs on Google Play, read Multiple APK Support.