Google Play blocking out Samsung devices when their resolution is changed

Question

Recently we've had issues where users can't download our app from the Google Play store due to the message "Your device isn't compatible with this version", even though the device is listed as compatible on the device manager of the app release and the app used to be compatible.

We found this to only be happening with Samsung devices E.G. S7, S8 and S6 Edge+ when the screen resolution option is changed in the device settings.

Our manifest currently specifies the following screen support. This works for the Galaxy S7 in all screen resolutions but will not work on the S6 Edge with WQHD resolution, the Google Play store says "Your device isn't compatible with this version" until a different resolution is selected.

<!-- just handsets allowed -->
<compatible-screens>
  <screen android:screenSize="small" android:screenDensity="280" />
  <screen android:screenSize="small" android:screenDensity="xhdpi" />
  <screen android:screenSize="small" android:screenDensity="360" />
  <screen android:screenSize="small" android:screenDensity="420" />
  <screen android:screenSize="small" android:screenDensity="xxhdpi" />
  <screen android:screenSize="small" android:screenDensity="560" />
  <screen android:screenSize="small" android:screenDensity="xxxhdpi" />
  
  <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="280" />
  <screen android:screenSize="normal" android:screenDensity="xhdpi" />
  <screen android:screenSize="normal" android:screenDensity="360" />
  <screen android:screenSize="normal" android:screenDensity="420" />
  <screen android:screenSize="normal" android:screenDensity="xxhdpi" />
  <screen android:screenSize="normal" android:screenDensity="xxxhdpi" />
  <screen android:screenSize="normal" android:screenDensity="480" />
  <screen android:screenSize="normal" android:screenDensity="560" />
  <screen android:screenSize="normal" android:screenDensity="640" />
</compatible-screens>

Our app is designed for handsets only and must not be available to tablets until it is ready.

Has anyone else had these issues or know of a fix? We really can't support tablet at the moment, so removing the compatible screens declaration is not an option right now (we tried adding the require telephony tag, but then we'd still be supporting 500 tablets).

Can you elaborate at all on the reason for disallowing your app on tablets? Sure, it may not be designed for tablets, but if a tablet user _did_ install it, what would be so awful about that? — Ben P., Dec 07 '17 at 20:01
@BenP. The bad is the support. If you don't block tablets your customer support has to handle tablet questions. - And the layout won't be fit for tablets, so it's a real bad user experience -> which will result in bad reviews and votings. — mars3142, Dec 11 '17 at 16:45
@Jimmy, did you ever find a resolution for this? I am running into the exact same issue, for the exact same reason of not wanting/able to support tablets. Did you find a reasonable alternate method that still excludes tablets but not these wqhd devices? — gabe3vino, Jan 31 '18 at 14:18
My app has this problem too, may be the Google Play app, they can not detect device like Galaxy S8 when change it resolution to HD, it has been report to Google Play team but it still here for months. My app use screen filter, only for phone — DzungPV, Feb 27 '18 at 11:29

Jorgesys · Answer 1 · 2017-12-14T01:28:47.190

The fragmentation in android devices is huge, i have seen that some users define <compatible-screens> in their apps, but sometimes when a new device is released with new density or the screen resolution is changed by the users, they can´t download the app from Google Play Store.

I used to set the definition of compatible-screens in my AndroidManifest.xml

<!-- just handsets allowed -->
<compatible-screens>
  ...
  ...
  ...
</compatible-screens>

but at the end to avoid the message "Your device isn't compatible with this version" and filtering from Google Play for certain devices, i have deleted the constraint <compatible-screens> from my AndroidManifest.xml in all my apps.

If you want to exclude only tablets, i used this configuration based on this answer by Mark Murphy.

<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" />
    <screen android:screenSize="small" android:screenDensity="xxhdpi" />
    <!-- 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" />
    <screen android:screenSize="normal" android:screenDensity="xxhdpi" />
</compatible-screens>

Did you read the original questions? We already used this, but your configuration does not work for high end devices, like the S8 with changed resolution in the system settings. — mars3142, Dec 14 '17 at 15:45
@EugeneKrivenja why not, this is not just a link to the docs. — Jorgesys, Sep 05 '18 at 14:12
It doesn't contain a bit of info to solve the issue, defined in question. The issue with Samsung is still there, now with S9/Note9. — Eugene Krivenja, Sep 05 '18 at 14:43

Google Play blocking out Samsung devices when their resolution is changed

1 Answers1