Question

Is it in any way possible to make a tablet use the regular layout when there is a large one available?

So for example:

if(!user.payedForTabletApp) DO_NOT_USE_LARGE_LAYOUT();

Answer 1

Here is how you can approach the problem:

1) Create two layouts: res/layout/phone.xml and res/layout/tablet.xml
2) Create layout aliases:
2.1) res/layout/main.xml -> res/layout/phone.xml
2.2) res/layout-large/main.xml -> res/layout/tablet.xml
2.3) res/layout-sw600dp/main.xml -> res/layout/tablet.xml

By alias I mean something like this:

<resources>
    <item name="main" type="layout">@layout/phone</item>
</resources>

For more examples of layout aliases see this tutorial.

3) Update your onCreate() function in activity or onCreateView() function in fragment to use appropriate layout.

Here is an example for activity:

int layoutResId = R.layout.main;
if (!user.payedForTabletApp) {
    layoutResId = R.layout.phone;
}
setContentView(layoutResId);