Enable android:largeHeap in Android 4, and disable it in Android 2.3

Question

Currently, I have a piece of code, which is designed to run both in Android 2.3 and 4+

The code will perform much better (Where it will not have OutOfMemory exception most of the time), if android:largeHeap is being applied in AndroidManifest.xml.

<application
    android:name=".MyApplication"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:screenOrientation="nosensor"
    android:largeHeap="true"

Currently, my android:minSdkVersion need to set to 15 instead of 10 (Android 2.3). If not, android:largeHeap is not allowable in AndroidManifest.xml.

<uses-sdk
    android:minSdkVersion="15"
    android:targetSdkVersion="15" />

Within single APK, how possible I can set

• Use android:largeHeap option if I were in Android 4+
• Do not use android:largeHeap option if I were in Android 2.3

Answer 1

You can also disable large heap in Honeycomb and enable it in ICS or JB. Just a little hacky or something. Here's what I tried.

Before we proceed, change your Build target to Honeycomb, Jelly Bean or ICS so we can put android:largeHeap attribute. Also, you can set android:minSdkVersion to API 10.

Android API 10 doesn't support large heap.

1. Create a folder values-v14 in res folder
2. I created bools.xml in values-v14
3. Put this value in bools.xml of values-v14

<bool name="largeheap">true</bool>

boolean value for values > bools.xml or values-[API VERSION] > bools.xml to disable large-heap in different API Version or by default.

<bool name="largeheap">false</bool>

Change the value of android:largeHeap to @bool/largeheap instead of hardcoded true or false

<application
        android:largeHeap="@bool/largeheap"
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher">
                ....
</application>

I tested this code by making a memory leak application or just load a Huge bitmaps, and, its working!

Good Luck!