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I have been trying to get an app install on my phone. Its compatibility page http://www.goqii.com/devices.html doesn't specify my phone. I wanted to know how this compatibility is locked to specific phones.

Trying to reverse engineer the apk (using simple apktool), I thought about modifying the minimum/target sdk versions. These two strings show that the apk is already above the Android version on device (4.2.2 or 19)

android:minSdkVersion="12"
android:targetSdkVersion="14"

As this isn't the problem, I am thinking about how to make it work. Any ideas if this compatibility is set elsewhere? I don't see any hardware differences between the compatible phones and mine (a chinese make called Gionee).

duggu
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rolfk
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2 Answers2

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If you're trying to download the app from the Play Store, it is very likely that the developer has defined filters on that app (http://developer.android.com/google/play/filters.html). These filters are not part of the Android Manifest and so, they cant be changed. This has been answered here already: How to restrict android app to specific device make?

Community
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Denis Loh
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  • thanks for introducing the play filters.. i tried getting the APK and then installing, so I'm sure the filters didn't have to do with my issue, since they are only for the store. – rolfk Nov 17 '14 at 17:18
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I think you should look into uses-feature tag in the manifest. If you go through the doc:

The purpose of a declaration is to inform any external entity of the set of hardware and software features on which your application depends. The element offers a required attribute that lets you specify whether your application requires and cannot function without the declared feature, or whether it prefers to have the feature but can function without it.

So it could be NFC or Bluetooth LE or Camera etc which is required for app to run and developer has made required=true for those features in manifest.

Shobhit Puri
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  • Thanks for suggesting the uses-feature tag. turns out Bluetooth LE is exactly what the phone is missing, which is why it shows an incompatibility. – rolfk Nov 17 '14 at 16:25