Google Play: Declaring an App is Only for TVs - google-play

I'm trying to publish an Android TV app, but the developer console is saying:
"You need to add at least 2 non-Android TV screenshots."
But this apk is only for Android TV, since there's another apk specific for tablets and phones. How can I target only Android TV?
Also, I would like to submit this particular APK only for NexusPlayer, and then add other Android TVs as the app is tested on them and the compatibility confirmed. The problem is that the developer console starts with almos 3000 devices (including tablets and phones) set as compatible by default, and I can only see a manual disable function.
EDIT
A temporary solution was to target only large and xlarge screens, reducing the number of auto-supported devices to 800. Still had to manually disable the unwanted ones, but with less overkill.
<supports-screens android:smallScreens="false"
android:normalScreens="false"
android:largeScreens="true"
android:xlargeScreens="true"
android:requiresSmallestWidthDp="720" />

Yes, you have to upload screenshots for Android TV and one other device, even if it's only for Android TV.
To limit device compatibility, make sure you have the following in your manifest:
<uses-feature android:name="android.software.leanback"
android:required="true" />
This will limit it to Android TV devices, and then you can manually limit from there as needed.

For the first part, it sounds like a limitation on the Play Console. Just upload two of the same TV screenshots that you already have uploaded and you're going to be just fine.
For the second part, I guess you need to need to go through all the 3000 devices manually. You could also restrict the range by specifying that your APK is x86-only.

Related

How to add Google Play store on a custom device of AVD?

I'm trying to have a particular install of Android to test one of my clients claim (she has a bug with Chrome on her phone, that I can't myself replicate)
So I want to create a device that is the same as her phone model, a Samsung Galaxy S5. Thing is, AVD won't let me have the Google Play Store on a custom hardware created.
Is there a way to add the playstore to a device?
Its weird because the screenshot given is before even I select an Android Build, so what is preventing my hardware from being compatible with the playstore? Even cloning one that already exists with Play Store seemingly desactivates it.
Unfortunately you can't add google play to a custom device, instead you could just install devices that already have google play.

Google play tablet 7-inch screenshots

Google play console wants me to add some 7-inch tablet screenshots in order to make the app easily accessible to tablets. But I don't have any tablet. Don't understand what's the problem. I have made screenshots in the final phase of development, testing the game in the Unity editor. I suppose these .png images are as good as if they were made from a phone. I don't even know how to make screenshots from a phone.
Is there a hidden feature to identify a screenshot as being made from the 7-inch tablet? Why don't they simply state the image resolution they want for the tablet "screenshot"??
Actually, it doesn't matter what resolution your image is. Just upload the images to that section, the purpose of that section is only to let your users have a first look of what your app looks like before they install it. If you don't intend to make your app for Tablet, just let that section empty, upload images only to Phone's section.
If you are using an Android phone such as Samsung, I would recommend you have a look at Settings/Advanced Features/ Smart Capture (turn it on). Then you can swipe your screen to take a screenshots (it has a tutorial there)

How to "disable" HD screens for Windows Phone app Store?

When I started working on our company's Windows Phone app project there was no full HD resolution for WP. But now there is and I'm supposed to disable the app for full HD devices in the WP Store. How do I exactly do that?
The main reason for this is that the app has a thick black ribbon on top of the screen when used with a full HD device.
I have noticed that when you update or upload .xap file, the Store recognizes the requirements of the app. The Store says the app works on all screens. How do I set the requirements so that the app is disabled HD resolution screens?
The app is made to support WP versions 7.1 through 8. I eyed the Internet for help but it seems that because the app is WP 7 compatible I can't describe the resolutions in the WMAppManifest where the Store would easily to find it. Or can I?
It would be so great if I could do this some easy way instead of going through the whole app to make it work "better" on HD screens.
There is no way how you can prevent users with certain display resolutions from installing your app. A similar question was asked here, it was about installation prevention of apps for specific device types. What you can do is to do the check in code.
You could check the device's display resolution when starting the application. If the size exceeds your limit, you could inform the user about that and exit the application.
How can I get a screen resolution of Device (Windows Phone)
However, I don't know how this would affect the app certification.
Windows Phone 7.1 only supports 800 x 480 resolution and Windows Phone 8 supports multiple resolution.
The scaling used for Windows Phone 7x apps on Windows Phone 8 means that one 720p and 1080p devices, you will get a black band. There is nothing you can do.
You could recompile the app as Windows Phone 8 app and have both WP7x and WP8 xaps available and this will ensure that the space is consumed correctly and the black band isn't shown.

Blocking mobile devices other than iPhone, iPod and iPAD and desktop

Hi we have a requirement where in we have to show mobile site if it is iPhone, iPOD or iPAD. Any devices other than these should get Device not supported message.
If it is desktop then redirect to desktop site.
Question: How can I identify that the device is not iPOD (iPAD, iPhone) and also this is not a desktop as it sounds difficult to get exhaustive list of universal mobile devices from user agent.
You could simply look at the aspect ratio which is pretty unique to I devices with regard to mobile. Also surely if you can tell if it is an I device then all other devices are not supported? Therefore you do not need to identify anything other than I devices. Then direct all other devices to the desktop site. (As long as the desktop site is designed properly it should work well enough on Android and Windows Phone devices). In fact I generally always point my android tablet and phone at the dektop version of the sites anyway as they normally have better functionality.

App not compatible with tablet

I've build an Android app...for phones...but I wouldn't mind to broaden my audience and let Tablet owners download it as well....
To be honest. it doesn't look very neat on a tablet...but I don't really mind that. I'll at least give them the option.
unfortunately I cant find the app on the Google Play Store / Android Market with my tablet! when I launch the url directly in the browser, I am being redirected to the Play store, but it says "this app is not compatible with your device"
I didn't specify anything in my Manifest like "android:xlargeScreens" (the default should be true, right?
I also didn't specify any device restrictions in the Store Publish page
Unfortunately I only have one tablet to test it with...so I don't know if it's the tablets fault, my apps fault or the Play Store's fault....
I have an HP Touchpad (CM9)....it's rather experimental device - but other phone apps works without a problem on that device
while developing, I also used my tablet as a test device, and the app launched on it. so I don't really know why the Play Store is forbidding me to download the app....
are there any special requirement that my Manifest or my XML-layouts have to match, for the Play Store to open it for tablet users as well?
The tablet may not support some of the features that your app requires. You can make them "not required" for the app (that means that you should check if they are actually available before using them in the code).
It is done like that:
<!-- features -->
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.telephony" android:required="false" />
Other possible features are:
android.hardware.camera
android.hardware.camera.autofocus
android.hardware.location.gps
android.hardware.location
android.hardware.location.network
For full list of relations between features<->permissions, you can see:
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/uses-feature-element.html
See "Feature reference"
write below code into your android manifest.xml file for make application tablet compatible.
<supports-screens
android:anyDensity="true"
android:largeScreens="true"
android:normalScreens="true"
android:smallScreens="true" />
I solved my own problem:
I did 2 things:
1 - I disabled 'touchscreen'
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.touchscreen" android:required="false" />
this disables ADVANCE touchscreen controls (like flicking etc.)
but I think the thing that did it was the following:
2 - I disabled the Copy Protection in the Play Store Publish page
a few hours later I could find my app on my tablet and install it!
Android documentation clearly mentioned that if your app supporting v3.1+ then you should have tag in AndroidManifest.xml
http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screen-compat-mode.html

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