Android Question What are small, normal and large screens

[antonomase]

Hi,

In the manifest editor, we can find

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

What are the normal, small and large screens ? Is the sizes predefined ?

I work on an application which is not planned for smartphones, but only tablets 7" and more.
I try to change normalScreen and smallScreen to false and run the application on my Galaxy S3.
It seems the changes have no effect : the application starts (I have a software test which display a message for smartphones).

So how to prevent an application to start on a smartphone ?

 

[Informatix]

Here's the link for the screen sizes:
http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html

 

[antonomase]

Thanks

7" Tablets and larger are xlarge screens.
But i try to set

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

and I have the error

AndroidManifest.xml:10: error: No resource identifier found for attribute 'xlargeScreens' in package 'android'

 

[stevel05]

What API level are you targeting/running on? xlargeScreens is available from API level 9 (Android 2.2)

Also check which android version you are pointing to in the tools/configure paths.

 

[antonomase]

Hi stevel,

I was pointing to android-8. More than 90% of the users of the 1st version of my app are under 4.0.3 to 4.2. So now, I point to android-15 (4.0.3)
In the manifest, I have now

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="15" android:targetSdkVersion="17"/>
<supports-screens
   android:xlargeScreens="true"
   android:largeScreens="false"
  android:normalScreens="false"
  android:smallScreens="false"
  android:anyDensity="true"/>

There is no more compilation error, but it seems to change nothing : the application starts on the smartphone (it is uploaded from B4A).

Are these indications just for Google Play to deny the smartphone to download the app ?

 

[eps]

Are these indications just for Google Play to deny the smartphone to download the app ?

Yes, it is intended to indicate what devices an App is developed in mind for.