Important Android Update Coming: Developers Must Take Action

The Google Android Developer's blog recently posted about a change to Honeycomb. This change is the ability for users to be able to choose to stretch your app or scale your app. This option will be enabled unless you, the developer, specifically sets support for xlarge screens:

<supports-screens android:xlargeScreens="true" />

Or you set the minSdkVersion or targetSdkVersion to API Level 11 or higher. 


If neither of these is true, the user will be give the option to scale your app in a way that may make it look much worse. If you are already doing the right thing with respect to supporting various screen sizes, the scaling mode will make your app look worse. This is because the scaling mode emulates an MDPI normal sized screen. That is, your app will become a pixelated version of what it looks like on the venerable G1. 


Is this what you want? Probably not. You must update your application to avoid this situation, but only if you do not already have xlarge screen support or API Level 11 or higher listed as a target or minimum SDK version.


The update to enable this on some devices rolled out yesterday. Get to it!


Need more resources on how to handle multiple device resolutions?

• Android Wireless Application Development, Second Edition, Chapter 25
• Sam's Teach Yourself Android Application Development in 24 Hours, Second Edition, Hour 20
• Create Flexible Android UIs with Fragments
• Android Tablet Development Tips and Tricks
• Android Compatibility: Diversity: Supporting Diverse Devices, Smart Developer, Issue #3

Honeycomb Preview Now Available

Earlier today, I was just telling someone how we lesser mortals almost never get SDKs much in advance of hardware anymore. Well, we just got one: the Honeycomb SDK preview.

And, besides the preview, the SDK tools and plugins have been updated. Sounds like good stuff. Now to go digest it all for an afternoon snack.

Even if you can't use the new SDK, don't forget to update your tools.

After you've digested it, let us know your favorite new features!