Nexus 5 , Galaxy S5 and some other devices are showing not compatible in Google play

Question

I have published an app in google play and for some devices is is showing as not supported such as Nexus 5 , Galaxy S5 to name a few .

I have mentioned in my AndroidManifest.xml the filters for only small and normal size screens as suggested in the below link

http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens-distribution.html#FilteringHandsetApps

    <!-- all small size screens -->
    <screen
        android:screenDensity="ldpi"
        android:screenSize="small" />
    <screen
        android:screenDensity="mdpi"
        android:screenSize="small" />
    <screen
        android:screenDensity="hdpi"
        android:screenSize="small" />
    <screen
        android:screenDensity="xhdpi"
        android:screenSize="small" />
    <!-- all normal size screens -->
    <screen
        android:screenDensity="ldpi"
        android:screenSize="normal" />
    <screen
        android:screenDensity="mdpi"
        android:screenSize="normal" />
    <screen
        android:screenDensity="hdpi"
        android:screenSize="normal" />
    <screen
        android:screenDensity="xhdpi"
        android:screenSize="normal" />
</compatible-screens>

Can somebody suggest what more needs to be added to get the devices in the supported list , I am suspecting these devices are of higher density.

According to [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20373775/my-app-showing-doent-compatible-for-nexus-5), Nexus 5 is `xxhdpi`. — Marius, Jul 11 '14 at 05:48

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:52

I just had a similar problem. I wanted to publish an app to be downloaded only on smartphones. I will introduce tablet support later. So I needed a filter that makes my app available only for smartphones. The app could not be install on Nexus 5 or Galaxy S5.

To fix this I did as suggested in the dev documentation (screen distribution) (see also answer on stackoverflow):

<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>

But that’s not enough. Some xxhdpi devices will not be supported. You may be tempted to copy/paste the last line and add “xxhdpi”, but tt won’t work (I just tested it and the APK signing failed with this error: "error APT0000: String types not allowed (at 'screenDensity' with value 'xxhdpi')") ;)

To support xxhdpi check the dev documentation (compatible screens element).

Note: This attribute currently does not accept xxhdpi as a valid value, but you can instead specify 480 as the value, which is the approximate threshold for xhdpi screens.

Thus you need to add 480, not xxhdpi, as follows:

<screen android:screenSize="small" android:screenDensity="480" />
<screen android:screenSize="normal" android:screenDensity="480" />

Now, coming back to the Nexus 5 and Galaxy S5 not being supported. Let’s check some specifications:

LG Nexus 5: http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_nexus_5-5705.php

Screen size is 4.95 inches.
Density: 445 ppi

Samsung Galaxy S5: http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s5-6033.php

Screen size: 5.1 inches
Density: 432 ppi

So according to the dev documentation (screen support):

how Android roughly maps actual sizes and densities to generalized sizes and densities (figures are not exact)

Figure 1. Illustration of how Android roughly maps actual sizes and densities to generalized sizes and densities (figures are not exact).

As you can see in the illustration above, between 4 and 5 inches is a bit “tricky” (please comment if I'm wrong) as the screen can be “normal” or “large”. So basically to be on the safe side I had to add support for large:

<screen android:screenSize="large" android:screenDensity="ldpi" />
<screen android:screenSize="large" android:screenDensity="mdpi" />
<screen android:screenSize="large" android:screenDensity="hdpi" />
<screen android:screenSize="large" android:screenDensity="xhdpi" />
<screen android:screenSize="large" android:screenDensity="480" />

I just tested on the Play Store and my colleague owning a Nexus 5 was able to download the app. Like this, anyway, some small tablets or phablets (screen size between 4 and 7 inches) will still be able to download my app, but at least the newest tablets with xlarge screen (larger than 7 inches) won’t. In my case this is acceptable… hope this helps and…

…please comment if I’m wrong about the zone between 4 and 5 inches which is not really clear to me. Which is normal or large…

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 11 '14 at 05:58

0

Try to include <supports-screens> element to your manifest, as <compatible-screens> defines specific screens your app supports, but <supports-screens> defines lower threshold of screens your app supports (that is, larger screens are supported too).

answered Jul 11 '14 at 05:58

A.Vynohradov

276
1
8

Nexus 5 , Galaxy S5 and some other devices are showing not compatible in Google play

2 Answers2