Why is a specific device marked as 'unsupported' in Google Play Store for Android

Question

Does anyone know how you can see why Google Play Store is marking specific devices for an app you created as 'not compatible' ?

I created an app and one of my testdevices was a GalaxyTab2. On this device all functions of the app are working no problem when you just put the apk on the device using a USB cable/or just downloading it from a website.

However when I upload the app to playstore the GalaxyTab2 is listed as an unsupported device. So GalaxyTab2 users are unable to install the app.

In the Google Play Developer Console you can see an overview of unsupported devices. But it seems that you can't get any info 'why' the device is unsupported. This currenlty lists 1000 devices. Of these a lot will be unsupported due to the fact that their Android version is too old. But from some devices (like the GalaxyTab 2) I am sure they can and run the apk no problem.

Some lines of my manifest:

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

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FLASHLIGHT" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />

<uses-sdk
    android:minSdkVersion="9"
    android:targetSdkVersion="16" />

Answer 1

Try adding:

<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera.flash" android:required="false" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera.autofocus" android:required="false" />

To your manifest. Your FLASHLIGHT permission may imply that it is a required feature, and as the Galaxy Tab 2 doesn't have a flash, it'd be incompatible. Same for autofocus, as pointed out by @323go.

Answer 2

The problem can be with the feature requirements for certain permissions.

For example

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />

may include the requirement of AutoFocus, so I would try to add

<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera.autofocus" android:required="false" />

to the AndroidManifest.xml.

Also the permission

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FLASHLIGHT" />

may include the requirement of flash hardware so I would add

<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera.flash" android:required="false" />

as well.

Answer 3

Here you can find a list that shows all permissions that imply Feature Requirements

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/uses-feature-element.html#permissions