Question

I have a weird issue regarding the publication of an Android application on the Google Play Store. The issue is that there are 0 devices compatible hence we can’t publish it.

Here is what the manifest file looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.xxx"
    android:installLocation="auto"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >

    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="7" android:targetSdkVersion="15" />

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION"/>

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE"/>

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" />

    <supports-screens
        android:largeScreens="true"
        android:normalScreens="true"
        android:xlargeScreens="true" >
    </supports-screens>

    <application
        android:name=".application.xxx"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar">

        <!--  To use google maps -->
        <uses-library android:name="com.google.android.maps" /> 
             <!-- activities/services defined here -->
    </application>
</manifest>

As you can see there is nothing special in here. I have even tried to publish the app with 0 permissions defined just to see what would happen and I still got the same compatibility issue.

I should mention a couple of things:

• I have tried publishing with 0 permissions, still same issue.
• I have tried setting the minSdkVersion to 13, still same issue.
• I am building using Ant (ant clean release). The app runs fine on any of our devices (Galaxy SII with 2.3, HTC Sensation with 2.3, Galaxy Spica with 2.1, Nexus S with 4.1.1).
• At some point in my code I am using features specific to API 13 and above but I am checking at runtime the API level and substitute that feature with another one compatible with older versions.

Any idea?

Thanks!

EDIT

The output of: aapt dump badging is:

package: name='com.myapp' versionCode='1' versionName='1.0'
sdkVersion:'7'
uses-permission:'android.permission.INTERNET'
uses-permission:'android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE'
uses-permission:'android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION'
uses-permission:'android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE'
uses-permission:'android.permission.READ_CONTACTS'
application-label:'MyApp'
application-label-fr:'MyApp'
application-icon-120:'res/drawable-ldpi/ic_launcher.png'
application-icon-160:'res/drawable-mdpi/ic_launcher.png'
application-icon-240:'res/drawable-hdpi/ic_launcher.png'
application-icon-320:'res/drawable-xhdpi/ic_launcher.png'
application: label='MyApp' icon='res/drawable-mdpi/ic_launcher.png'
uses-library:'com.google.android.maps'
launchable-activity: name='com.myapp.activities.SplashScreenActivity'  label='MyApp' icon=''
uses-permission:'android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE'
uses-implied-permission:'android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE','requested WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE'
uses-permission:'android.permission.READ_CALL_LOG'
uses-implied-permission:'android.permission.READ_CALL_LOG','targetSdkVersion < 16 and requested READ_CONTACTS'
uses-feature:'android.hardware.location'
uses-implied-feature:'android.hardware.location','requested a location access permission'
uses-feature:'android.hardware.location.gps'
uses-implied-feature:'android.hardware.location.gps','requested android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION permission'
uses-feature:'android.hardware.touchscreen'
uses-implied-feature:'android.hardware.touchscreen','assumed you require a touch screen unless explicitly made optional'
uses-feature:'android.hardware.screen.portrait'
uses-implied-feature:'android.hardware.screen.portrait','one or more activities have specified a portrait orientation'
main
other-activities
other-services
supports-screens: 'small' 'normal' 'large' 'xlarge'
supports-any-density: 'true'
locales: '--_--' 'fr'
densities: '120' '160' '240' '320'

Answer 1

Quite frankly, Google Play is messed up. I have three published apps which are compatible with 0 devices, and yet have thousands of users. Even weirder, Google Play gives me statistics for those apps, showing users all over the world.

So I would say go ahead and publish it. Sometimes it can take a while to show up, but once it does, you should be able to install it on your devices and confirm that users can download it, despite the console showing 0 compatible devices.