Android device class and manifest guide
How to target devices for a native Android application in Vodafone AppSelect
The Android operating system powers a wide range of devices, with more and more devices being released every day. It's difficult to create an application that runs perfectly and looks the same on all these devices. That's why it is important to make sure that an application won't end up on a device on which it looks bad or doesn't run properly.
AndroidManifest.xml settings
When you upload an Android app to be published on Vodafone AppSelect, our system looks at the AndroidManifest.xml file and will associate some device classes to your application, based on the settings defined there.
Right after upload, you will see a list of devices associated to your app, this mapping is based on parsing the information in the Android manifest file.
- Refer to http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/manifest-intro.html for information on Android manifest
- You need to define in the manifest file the capabilities, example below,
e.g. <manifest ...>
<supports-screens>
<supports-screens
android:largeScreens="true“ />
</supports-screens>
<uses-feature
android:name="android.hardware.bluetooth" />
</manifest>
- Software, hardware and permissions that imply feature requirements are parsed to determine the list of compatible devices the app can run on.
- Information on the features can be found here http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/uses-feature-element.html
- If an application build has been created for a specific device, you can select that device (using the device deselection process) when uploading the app during the submission process.
- However, it is recommended that device deselection is used only in exceptional circumstances because:
- Wider reach. Try to make the app available to as wide range of compatible devices as possible.
- Your app will be made available to new devices when they are introduced. The app will be made available based on the device capabilities to the new devices if the features and capabilities requested in the manifest are supported by the new device. If you restrict the list of devices, your app will not be made available to new devices.