Question

We’re writing an Android app which we plan to make available on Android devices that have at least Froyo (API 8) installed up to Jelly Bean (API 16), but we don’t want to offer it to API levels 12 and 13 now, which are Honeycomb 3.1 and 3.2, respectively.

Basically, we’re just avoiding Android tablets. Is there any way to skip these OSes? Something with AndroidManifest.xml file?

Answer 1

You don’t want to skip OSes 🙂 Use < compatible-screens > in your manifest and restrict to what you support.

From the docs,

Specifies each screen configuration with which the application is
compatible. Only one instance of the element is
allowed in the manifest, but it can contain multiple
elements. Each element specifies a specific screen
size-density combination with which the application is compatible.

Example :

If your application is compatible with only small and normal screens, regardless of screen density, then you must specify eight different elements, because each screen size has four different density configurations. Here’s what the manifest entry looks like if your application is compatible with only small and normal screens:

<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>

---

EDIT : Clarification about why you should NOT use <supports-screens> instead of this solution.

If you use the <supports-screens> element when your application is not compatible with larger screens and set the larger screen size attributes to “false”, then external services such as Google Play do not apply filtering. Your application will still be available to larger screens, but when it runs, it will not resize to fit the screen. Instead, the system will emulate a handset screen size (about 320dp x 480dp).

Bottom line :

If you want to prevent your application from being downloaded on larger screens, use <compatible-screens>