Publish multiple apks with various filters for mobile and TV

Question

I want to publish several apks: one for mobile and the other androidtv in one application. According to the publication of several APKs with different filters in one application, there are only four distinctive filters:

Currently, Google Play allows you to publish multiple APKs for one application, only if each APK provides different filters based on the following configurations:

• OpenGL Texture Compression Formats

• Screen size (and, if necessary, screen density)

• API level

• Processor Architecture (ABI)

All other filters still work the same as usual, but these four are only filters that can distinguish one APK from another in the same list of apps on Google Play. For example, you cannot publish multiple APKs for the same application, if the APKs differ only in the basics on the device there is a camera.

I thought to distinguish between API levels and screen size, but there seems to be an overlap:

• The API level (MinSDK) for the androidtv application is supported at 21, and for the mobile application - 16. Thus, there is an overlap of the API levels (21 and above).

• The screen size for an Android phone may be the same as the tablet screen: Ex. The overall resolution of the high definition TV screen is 720p, 1080i and 1080p. Also, the resolution of Samsung nexus is 720x1280.

I'm afraid that if I publish androidtv apk with a higher version, it may replace the mobile application with a tablet with API level> = 21 and a screen size of 720x1280, which is also suitable for the size of the layout for TV.

So, how can I clearly distinguish between these two apks using different filters in the application manifest?

UPDATE

I already added the rollback function in the androidtv application manifest

<manifest> <uses-feature android:name="android.software.leanback" android:required="true" /> ... </manifest> 

I see 42 supported devices for androidtv apk (I can’t see which devices) and 10791 for apk mobile device and the total number of 10832 all devices supported for the entire application.

10791 + 42 = 10833

Thus, there is still the possibility of overlapping device 1 (10833 - 10832 = 1), due to which a warning is displayed.

overlap warning

androidtv apk

mobile apk

total number of devices

I do not think that the overlapping message is due to the fact that the androidtv apk is a super-set of mobile apk, as mentioned in one of the comments, looking at the number of supported devices for androidtv, which is much less.

Since there is only one possible overlapping device, I will publish it, but I would like for me to know which devices overlap in order to receive both apks.

Answer 1

Actually there is a “feature” that is used specifically for Android TV. You can view instructions in docs . But basically, you just need to specify that it uses the leanback function, as shown below.

 <manifest> <uses-feature android:name="android.software.leanback" android:required="true" /> ... </manifest> 

This ensures that any TV device that works with downback will receive your APK (you can set require = false if you use one APK). I believe that all official Android TVs use this feature. It is possible that notbackback may be on a non-tv device, but in this case all their applications will be displayed as television applications.

There are several other functions that you can disable / enable for Android Android, you can view the list of releases for more information (in particular this section ).

It should be noted that there are some overlapping devices that can satisfy both your mobile and television APKs. After talking with a Play Console team representative, they recommended a way around this:

As for the multi-apk scenario where you have overlapping devices - yes, your Android TV APK should always have a higher version code. There are several solutions to this problem:

• You can manually blacklist 2 overlapping devices. This will fix the problem with overlapping APKs immediately, however if new devices are released in the future that will be eligible for both APKs, you will run into this problem again.

• Use the version code scheme for your Android TV APK, which is significantly higher than your mobile device APK. For example, your TV-APK may be an existing version code + 100000 or 100808, while your mobile device’s APK remains at 838. In this case, you can publish mobile-device APKs to code 100808 without having to update the Android TV APK using every push. It will also solve any problems with the alpha / beta testing of the APK for Android TV.

His answer is also discussed in the "Assigning Version Codes" section of this document .