Large Screens

Prepare your app for the resizability and orientation changes in Android 17

Seharakram60 — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 19:34:00 +0000

Posted by Miguel Montemayor, Developer Relations Engineer, Android

With the release of Android 16 in 2025, we shared our vision for a device ecosystem where apps adapt seamlessly to any screen—whether it’s a phone, foldable, tablet, desktop, car display, or XR. Users expect their apps to work everywhere. Whether multitasking on a tablet, unfolding a device to read comfortably, or running apps in a desktop windowing environment, users expect the UI to fill the available display space and adapt to the device posture.

We introduced significant changes to orientation and resizability APIs to facilitate adaptive behavior, while providing a temporary opt-out to help you make the transition. We’ve already seen many developers successfully adapt to this transition when targeting API level 36.

Now with the release of the Android 17 Beta, we’re moving to the next phase of our adaptive roadmap: Android 17 (API level 37) removes the developer opt-out for orientation and resizability restrictions on large screen devices (sw > 600 dp). When you target API level 37, your app must be capable of adapting to a variety of display sizes.

The behavior changes ensure that the Android ecosystem offers a consistent, high-quality experience on all device form factors.

What’s changing in Android 17

Apps targeting Android 17 must ensure their compatibility with the phase out of manifest attributes and runtime APIs introduced in Android 16. We understand for some apps this may be a big transition, so we’ve included best practices and tools for helping avoid common issues later in this blog post.

No new changes have been introduced since Android 16, but the developer opt-out is no longer possible. As a reminder: when your app is running on a large screen—where large screen means that the smaller dimension of the display is greater than or equal to 600 dp—the following manifest attributes and APIs are ignored:

Note: As previously mentioned with Android 16, these changes do not apply for screens that are smaller than sw 600 dp or apps categorized as games based on the android:appCategory flag.

Manifest attributes/API	Ignored values
screenOrientation	portrait, reversePortrait, sensorPortrait, userPortrait, landscape, reverseLandscape, sensorLandscape, userLandscape
setRequestedOrientation()	portrait, reversePortrait, sensorPortrait, userPortrait, landscape, reverseLandscape, sensorLandscape, userLandscape
resizeableActivity	all
minAspectRatio	all
maxAspectRatio	all

Also, users retain control. In the aspect ratio settings, users can explicitly opt-in to using the app’s requested behavior.

Prepare your app

Apps will need to support landscape and portrait layouts for display sizes in the full range of aspect ratios in which users can choose to use apps, including resizable windows, as there will no longer be a way to restrict the aspect ratio and orientation to portrait or to landscape.

Test your app

Your first step is to test your app with these changes to make sure the app works well across display sizes.

Use Android 17 Beta 1 with the Pixel Tablet and Pixel Fold series emulators in Android Studio, and set the targetSdkPreview = “CinnamonBun”. Alternatively, you can use the app compatibility framework by enabling the UNIVERSAL_RESIZABLE_BY_DEFAULT flag if your app does not target API level 36 yet.

We have additional tools to ensure your layouts adapt correctly. You can automatically audit your UI and get suggestions to make your UI more adaptive with Compose UI Check, and simulate specific display characteristics in your tests using DeviceConfigurationOverride.

For apps that have historically restricted orientation and aspect ratio, we commonly see issues with skewed or misoriented camera previews, stretched layouts, inaccessible buttons, or loss of user state when handling configuration changes.

Let’s take a look at some strategies for addressing these common issues.

Ensure camera compatibility

A common problem on landscape foldables or for aspect ratio calculations in scenarios like multi-window, desktop windowing, or connected displays, is when the camera preview appears stretched, rotated, or cropped.

Ensure your camera preview isn’t stretched or rotated.

This issue often happens on large screen and foldable devices because apps assume fixed relationships between camera features (like aspect ratio and sensor orientation) and device features (like device orientation and natural orientation).

To ensure your camera preview adapts correctly to any window size or orientation, consider these four solutions:

Solution 1: Jetpack CameraX (preferred)

The simplest and most robust solution is to use the Jetpack CameraX library. Its PreviewView UI element is designed to handle all preview complexities automatically:

PreviewView correctly adjusts for sensor orientation, device rotation, and scaling
PreviewView maintains the aspect ratio of the camera image, typically by centering and cropping (FILL_CENTER)
You can set the scale type to FIT_CENTER to letterbox the preview if needed

For more information, see Implement a preview in the CameraX documentation.

Solution 2: CameraViewfinder

If you are using an existing Camera2 codebase, the CameraViewfinder library (backward compatible to API level 21) is another modern solution. It simplifies displaying the camera feed by using a TextureView or SurfaceView and applying all the necessary transformations (aspect ratio, scale, and rotation) for you.

For more information, see the Introducing Camera Viewfinder blog post and Camera preview developer guide.

Solution 3: Manual Camera2 implementation

If you can’t use CameraX or CameraViewfinder, you must manually calculate the orientation and aspect ratio and ensure the calculations are updated on each configuration change:

Get the camera sensor orientation (for example, 0, 90, 180, 270 degrees) from CameraCharacteristics
Get the device’s current display rotation (for example, 0, 90, 180, 270 degrees)
Use the camera sensor orientation and display rotation values to determine the necessary transformations for your SurfaceView or TextureView
Ensure the aspect ratio of your output Surface matches the aspect ratio of the camera preview to prevent distortion

Important: Note the camera app might be running in a portion of the screen, either in multi-window or desktop windowing mode or on a connected display. For this reason, screen size should not be used to determine the dimensions of the camera viewfinder; use window metrics instead. Otherwise you risk a stretched camera preview.

For more information, see the Camera preview developer guide and Your Camera app on different form factors video.

Solution 4: Perform basic camera actions using an Intent

If you don’t need many camera features, a simple and straightforward solution is to perform basic camera actions like capturing a photo or video using the device’s default camera application. In this case, you can simply use an Intent instead of integrating with a camera library, for easier maintenance and adaptability.

For more information, see Camera intents.

Avoid stretched UI or inaccessible buttons

If your app assumes a specific device orientation or display aspect ratio, the app may run into issues when it’s now used across various orientations or window sizes.

Ensure buttons, textfields, and other elements aren’t stretched on large screens.

You may have set buttons, text fields, and cards to fillMaxWidth or match_parent. On a phone, this looks great. However, on a tablet or foldable in landscape, UI elements stretch across the entire large screen. In Jetpack Compose, you can use the widthIn modifier to set a maximum width for components to avoid stretched content:

Box(
    contentAlignment = Alignment.Center,
    modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize()
) {
    Column(
        modifier = Modifier
            .widthIn(max = 300.dp) // Prevents stretching beyond 300dp
            .fillMaxWidth()        // Fills width up to 300dp
            .padding(16.dp)
    ) {
        // Your content
    }
}

If a user opens your app in landscape orientation on a foldable or tablet, action buttons like Save or Login at the bottom of the screen may be rendered offscreen. If the container is not scrollable, the user can be blocked from proceeding. In Jetpack Compose, you can add a verticalScroll modifier to your component:

Column(
    modifier = Modifier
        .fillMaxSize()
        .verticalScroll(rememberScrollState())
        .padding(16.dp)
)

By combining max-width constraints with vertical scrolling, you ensure your app remains functional and usable, regardless of how wide or short the app window size becomes.

See our guide on building adaptive layouts.

Preserve state with configuration changes

Removing orientation and aspect ratio restrictions means your app’s window size will change much more frequently. Users may rotate their device, fold/unfold it, or resize your app dynamically in split-screen or desktop windowing modes.

By default, these configuration changes destroy and recreate your activity. If your app does not properly manage this lifecycle event, users will have a frustrating experience: scroll positions are reset to the top, half-filled forms are wiped clean, and navigation history is lost. To ensure a seamless adaptive experience, it’s critical your app preserves state through these configuration changes. With Jetpack Compose, you can opt-out of recreation, and instead allow window size changes to recompose your UI to reflect the new amount of space available.

See our guide on saving UI state.

Targeting API level 37 by August 2027

If your app previously opted out of these changes when targeting API level 36, your app will only be impacted by the Android 17 opt-out removal after your app targets API level 37. To help you plan ahead and make the necessary adjustments to your app, here’s the timeline when these changes will take effect:

Android 17: Changes described above will be the baseline experience for large screen devices (smallest screen width > 600 dp) for apps that target API level 37. Developers will not have an option to opt-out.

The deadlines for targeting a specific API level are app-store specific. For Google Play, new apps and updates will be required to target API level 37, making this behavior mandatory for distribution in August 2027.

Preparing for Android 17

Refer to the Android 17 changes page for all changes impacting apps in Android 17. To test your app, download Android 17 Beta 1 and update to targetSdkPreview = “CinnamonBun” or use the app compatibility framework to enable specific changes.

The future of Android is adaptive, and we’re here to help you get there. As you prepare for Android 17, we encourage you to review our guides for building adaptive layouts and our large screen quality guidelines. These resources are designed to help you handle multiple form factors and window sizes with confidence.

Don’t wait. Start getting ready for Android 17 today!

The post Prepare your app for the resizability and orientation changes in Android 17 appeared first on InShot Pro.

Beyond the smartphone: How JioHotstar optimized its UX for foldables and tablets

Seharakram60 — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 12:04:16 +0000

Posted by Prateek Batra, Developer Relations Engineer, Android Adaptive Apps

Beyond Phones: How JioHotstar Built an Adaptive UX

JioHotstar is a leading streaming platform in India, serving a user base exceeding 400 million. With a vast content library encompassing over 330,000 hours of video on demand (VOD) and real-time delivery of major sporting events, the platform operates at a massive scale.

To help ensure a premium experience for its vast audience, JioHotstar elevated the viewing experience by optimizing their app for foldables and tablets. They accomplished this by following Google’s adaptive app guidance and utilizing resources like samples, codelabs, cookbooks, and documentation to help create a consistently seamless and engaging experience across all display sizes.

JioHotstar’s large screen challenge

JioHotstar offered an excellent user experience on standard phones and the team wanted to take advantage of new form factors. To start, the team evaluated their app against the large screen app quality guidelines to understand the optimizations required to extend their user experience to foldables and tablets. To achieve Tier 1 large screen app status, the team implemented two strategic updates to adapt the app across various form factors and differentiate on foldables. By addressing the unique challenges posed by foldable and tablet devices, JioHotstar aims to deliver a high-quality and immersive experience across all display sizes and aspect ratios.

What they needed to do

JioHotstar’s user interface, designed primarily for standard phone displays, encountered challenges in adapting hero image aspect ratios, menus, and show screens to the diverse screen sizes and resolutions of other form factors. This often led to image cropping, letterboxing, low resolution, and unutilized space, particularly in landscape mode. To help fully leverage the capabilities of tablets and foldables and deliver an optimized user experience across these device types, JioHotstar focused on refining the UI to ensure optimal layout flexibility, image rendering, and navigation across a wider range of devices.

What they did

For a better viewing experience on large screens, JioHotstar took the initiative to enhance its app by incorporating WindowSizeClass and creating optimized layouts for compact, medium and extended widths. This allowed the app to adapt its user interface to various screen dimensions and aspect ratios, ensuring a consistent and visually appealing UI across different devices.

JioHotstar followed this pattern using Material 3 Adaptive library to know how much space the app has available. First invoking the currentWindowAdaptiveInfo() function, then using new layouts accordingly for the three window size classes:

val sizeClass = currentWindowAdaptiveInfo().windowSizeClass

if(sizeClass.isWidthAtLeastBreakpoint(WIDTH_DP_EXPANDED_LOWER_BOUND)) {
    showExpandedLayout()
} else if(sizeClass.isHeightAtLeastBreakpoint(WIDTH_DP_MEDIUM_LOWER_BOUND)) {
    showMediumLayout()
} else {
    showCompactLayout()
}

The breakpoints are in order, from the biggest to the smallest, as internally the API checks for with a greater or equal then, so any width that is at least greater or equal then EXPANDED will always be greater than MEDIUM.

JioHotstar is able to provide the premium experience unique to foldable devices: Tabletop Mode. This feature conveniently relocates the video player to the top half of the screen and the video controls to the bottom half when a foldable device is partially folded for a handsfree experience.

To accomplish this, also using the Material 3 Adaptive library, the same currentWindowAdaptiveInfo() can be used to query for the tabletop mode. Once the device is held in tabletop mode, a change of layout to match the top and bottom half of the posture can be done with a column to place the player in the top half and the controllers in the bottom half:

val isTabletTop = currentWindowAdaptiveInfo().windowPosture.isTabletop
if(isTabletopMode) {
   Column {
       Player(Modifier.weight(1f))
       Controls(Modifier.weight(1f))
   }
} else {
   usualPlayerLayout()
}

JioHotstar is now meeting the Large Screen app quality guidelines for Tier 1. The team leveraged adaptive app guidance, utilizing samples, codelabs, cookbooks, and documentation to incorporate these recommendations.

To further improve the user experience, JioHotstar increased touch target sizes, to the recommended 48dp, on video discovery pages, ensuring accessibility across large screen devices. Their video details page is now adaptive, adjusting to screen sizes and orientations. They moved beyond simple image scaling, instead leveraging window size classes to detect window size and density in real time and load the most appropriate hero image for each form factor, helping to enhance visual fidelity. Navigation was also improved, with layouts adapting to suit different screen sizes.

Now users can view their favorite content from JioHotstar on large screens devices with an improved and highly optimized viewing experience.

Achieving Tier 1 large screen app status with Google is a milestone that reflects the strength of our shared vision. At JioHotstar, we have always believed that optimizing for large screen devices goes beyond adaptability, it’s about elevating the viewing experience for audiences who are rapidly embracing foldables, tablets, and connected TVs.

Leveraging Google’s Jetpack libraries and guides allowed us to combine our insights on content consumption with their expertise in platform innovation. This collaboration allowed both teams to push boundaries, address gaps, and co-create a seamless, immersive experience across every screen size.

Together, we’re proud to bring this enhanced experience to millions of users and to set new benchmarks in how India and the world experience streaming.

Sonu Sanjeev
Senior Software Development Engineer

The post Beyond the smartphone: How JioHotstar optimized its UX for foldables and tablets appeared first on InShot Pro.

Goodbye Mobile Only, Hello Adaptive: Three essential updates from 2025 for building adaptive apps

Seharakram60 — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000

Posted by Fahd Imtiaz – Product Manager, Android Developer

Goodbye Mobile Only, Hello Adaptive: Three essential updates from 2025 for building adaptive apps

In 2025 the Android ecosystem has grown far beyond the phone. Today, developers have the opportunity to reach over 500 million active devices, including foldables, tablets, XR, Chromebooks, and compatible cars.

These aren’t just additional screens; they represent a higher-value audience. We’ve seen that users who own both a phone and a tablet spend 9x more on apps and in-app purchases than those with just a phone. For foldable users, that average spend jumps to roughly 14x more*.

This engagement signals a necessary shift in development: goodbye mobile apps, hello adaptive apps.

To help you build for that future, we spent this year releasing tools that make adaptive the default way to build. Here are three key updates from 2025 designed to help you build these experiences.

Standardizing adaptive behavior with Android 16

To support this shift, Android 16 introduced significant changes to how apps can restrict orientation and resizability. On displays of at least 600dp, manifest and runtime restrictions are ignored, meaning apps can no longer lock themselves to a specific orientation or size. Instead, they fill the entire display window, ensuring your UI scales seamlessly across portrait and landscape modes.

Because this means your app context will change more frequently, it’s important to verify that you are preserving UI state during configuration changes. While Android 16 offers a temporary opt-out to help you manage this transition, Android 17 (SDK37) will make this behavior mandatory. To ensure your app behaves as expected under these new conditions, use the resizable emulator in Android Studio to test your adaptive layouts today.

Supporting screens beyond the tablet with Jetpack WindowManager 1.5.0

As devices evolve, our existing definitions of “large” need to evolve with them. In October, we released Jetpack WindowManager 1.5.0 to better support the growing number of very large screens and desktop environments.

On these surfaces, the standard “Expanded” layout, which usually fits two panes comfortably, often isn’t enough. On a 27-inch monitor, two panes can look stretched and sparse, leaving valuable screen real estate unused. To solve this, WindowManager 1.5.0 introduced two new width window size classes: Large (1200dp to 1600dp) and Extra-large (1600dp+).

These new breakpoints signal when to switch to high-density interfaces. Instead of stretching a typical list-detail view, you can take advantage of the width to show three or even four panes simultaneously. Imagine an email client that comfortably displays your folders, the inbox list, the open message, and a calendar sidebar, all in a single view. Support for these window size classes was added to Compose Material 3 adaptive in the 1.2 release.

Rethinking user journeys with Jetpack Navigation 3

Building a UI that morphs from a single phone screen to a multi-pane tablet layout used to require complex state management. This often meant forcing a navigation graph designed for single destinations to handle simultaneous views. First announced at I/O 2025, Jetpack Navigation 3 is now stable, introducing a new approach to handling user journeys in adaptive apps.

Built for Compose, Nav3 moves away from the monolithic graph structure. Instead, it provides decoupled building blocks that give you full control over your back stack and state. This solves the single source of truth challenge common in split-pane layouts. Because Nav3 uses the Scenes API, you can display multiple panes simultaneously without managing conflicting back stacks, simplifying the transition between compact and expanded views.

A foundation for an adaptive future

This year delivered the tools you need, from optimizing for expansive layouts to the granular controls of WindowManager and Navigation 3. And, Android 16 began the shift toward truly flexible UI, with updates coming next year to deliver excellent adaptive experiences across all form factors. To learn more about adaptive development principles and get started, head over to d.android.com/adaptive-apps.

The tools are ready, and the users are waiting. We can’t wait to see what you build!

*Source: internal Google data

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Jetpack WindowManager 1.5 is stable

Seharakram60 — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 13:00:00 +0000

We’re excited to announce that Jetpack WindowManager 1.5.0 is now stable!

This release builds on the strong foundation of adaptability in WindowManager, making it even easier to create polished, adaptive UIs that look great on all screen sizes. As the Android ecosystem continues to grow, users are engaging with apps on a wider variety of devices than ever before: from phones and foldables to tablets, connected displays, Chromebooks, and even car displays in parked mode.

WindowManager 1.5 focuses on providing better tools for this diverse device environment.

What’s new in WindowManager 1.5

This stable release introduces new breakpoints for very large screens, enhances the activity embedding API, and provides more flexibility for calculating window metrics.

New window size classes: Large and Extra-large

The biggest update in 1.5 is the addition of two new width window size classes: Large and Extra-large.

Window size classes are our official, opinionated set of viewport breakpoints that help you design and develop adaptive layouts. With 1.5, we’re extending this guidance for screens that go beyond typical tablets.

Here are the new width breakpoints:

Large: For widths between 1200dp and 1600dp
Extra-large: For widths ≥1600dp

The different window size classes based on display width.

Why are these important?

Starting with Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2, Android supports connected displays, enabling users to attach an external display to their device and transform it into a desktop-like tool with a large screen.

Phone connected to an external display, with a desktop session on the external display.

With this new feature available, opinionated guidance to include bigger displays is crucial.

On these very large surfaces, simply scaling up a tablet’s Expanded
layout isn’t always the best user experience. An email client, for example, might comfortably show two panes (a mailbox and a message) in the Expanded window size class. But on an Extra-large desktop monitor, the email client could elegantly display three or even four panes—perhaps a mailbox, a message list, the full message content, and a calendar/tasks panel, all at once.

By providing official breakpoints for very large display sizes, WindowManager 1.5 gives you a clear signal to
introduce layouts specifically designed for a productive, information-dense desktop experience.

The window size classes can be calculated using computeWindowSizeClass(), which is an androidx.window.core.layout library extension function that extends the Set type.

To include the new window size classes in your project, simply call the function from the WindowSizeClass.BREAKPOINTS_V2 set instead of WindowSizeClass.BREAKPOINTS_V1:

val currentWindowMetrics =
    WindowMetricsCalculator.getOrCreate()
    .computeCurrentWindowMetrics(LocalContext.current)
val sizeClass = WindowSizeClass.BREAKPOINTS_V2
    .computeWindowSizeClass(currentWindowMetrics)

Then apply the correct layout when you’re sure your app has at least that much space:

if(sizeClass.isWidthAtLeastBreakpoint(
    WindowSizeClass.WIDTH_DP_LARGE_LOWER_BOUND)){
    …
	// window is at least 1200 dp wide
}

Adaptive libraries

The Compose Material 3 Adaptive library helps you create adaptive UIs that adapt themselves automatically according to the current window configurations like window size classes or device postures.

The good news is that the library is already up to date with the new breakpoints! Starting from version
1.2 (now in Release Candidate stage), the default pane scaffold directive functions support Large and Extra-large window width size classes.

You only need to opt-in by declaring in your Gradle build file that you want to use the new breakpoints:

currentWindowAdaptiveInfo(
    supportLargeAndXLargeWidth = true)

Additional improvements

Activity embedding — auto-save and restore: WindowManager can now automatically save and restore the state of your activity embedding splits. This helps preserve the user’s layout across process recreation, leading to a more stable and consistent experience. Developers don’t have to save and restore the state manually anymore, but they can simply opt-in auto by setting the EmbeddingConfiguration#isAutoSaveEmbeddingState property.
Expanded WindowMetrics:
You can now calculate WindowMetrics
from an Application
context, not just an Activity
context.
This provides more flexibility for accessing window information from different parts of your app.

How to get started

To start using the new Large and Extra-large size classes and other 1.5 features in your Android projects, update your app dependencies in build.gradle.kts to the latest stable version:

dependencies {
    implementation(“androidx.window:window:1.5.0”) 
    // or, if you’re using the WindowManager testing library:
    testImplementation(“androidx.window:window-testing:1.5.0”)
}

WindowManager 1.5 is another step forward for creating fully adaptive apps that run across Android form factors. Check out the official release notes for a complete list of changes and bug fixes.

Happy coding!

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A product manager’s guide to adapting Android apps across devices

Seharakram60 — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 12:01:47 +0000

Posted by Fahd Imtiaz, Product Manager, Android Developer Experience

Today, Android is launching a few updates across the platform! This includes the start of Android 16’s rollout, with details for both developers and users, a Developer Preview for enhanced Android desktop experiences with connected displays, and updates for Android users across Google apps and more, plus the June Pixel Drop. We’re also recapping all the Google I/O updates for Android developers focused on building excellent, adaptive Android apps.

With new form factors emerging continually, the Android ecosystem is more dynamic than ever.

From phones and foldables to tablets, Chromebooks, TVs, cars, Wear and XR, Android users expect their apps to run seamlessly across an increasingly diverse range of form factors. Yet, many Android apps fall short of these expectations as they are built with UI constraints such as being locked to a single orientation or restricted in resizability.

With this in mind, Android 16 introduced API changes for apps targeting SDK level 36 to ignore orientation and resizability restrictions starting with large screen devices, shifting toward a unified model where adaptive apps are the norm. This is the moment to move ahead. Adaptive apps aren’t just the future of Android, they’re the expectation for your app to stand out across Android form factors.

Why you should prioritize adaptive now

Source: internal Google data

Prioritizing optimizations to make your app adaptive isn’t just about keeping up with the orientation and resizability API changes in Android 16 for apps targeting SDK 36. Adaptive apps unlock tangible benefits across user experience, development efficiency, and market reach.

Mobile apps can now reach users on over 500 million active large screen devices: Mobile apps run on foldables, tablets, Chromebooks, and even compatible cars, with minimal changes. Android 16 will introduce significant advancements in desktop windowing for a true desktop-like experience on large screens, including connected displays. And Android XR opens a new dimension, allowing your existing apps to be available in immersive environments. The user expectation is clear: a consistent, high-quality experience that intelligently adapts to any screen – be it a foldable, a tablet with a keyboard, or a movable, resizable window on a Chromebook.

“The new baseline” with orientation and resizability API changes in Android 16: We believe mobile apps are undergoing a shift to have UI adapt responsively to any screen size, just like websites. Android 16 will ignore app-defined restrictions like fixed orientation (portrait-only) and non-resizable windows, beginning with large screens (smallest width of the device is >= 600dp) including tablets and inner displays on foldables. For most apps, it’s key to helping them stretch to any screen size. In some cases if your app isn’t adaptive, it could deliver a broken user experience on these screens. This moves adaptive design from a nice-to-have to a foundational requirement.

Increase user reach and app discoverability in Play: Adaptive apps are better positioned to be ranked higher in Play, and featured in editorial articles across form factors, reaching a wider audience across Play search and homepages. Additionally, Google Play Store surfaces ratings and reviews across all form factors. If your app is not optimized, a potential user’s first impression might be tainted by a 1-star review complaining about a stretched UI on a device they don’t even own yet. Users are also more likely to engage with apps that provide a great experience across their devices.
Increased engagement on large screens: Users on large screen devices often have different interaction patterns. On large screens, users may engage for longer sessions, perform more complex tasks, and consume more content.

Concepts saw a 70% increase in user engagement on large screens after optimizing.

Usage for 6 major media streaming apps in the US was up to 3x more for tablet and phone users, as compared to phone only users.

More accessible app experiences: According to the World Bank, 15% of the world’s population has some type of disability. People with disabilities depend on apps and services that support accessibility to communicate, learn, and work. Matching the user’s preferred orientation improves the accessibility of applications, helping to create an inclusive experience for all.

Today, most apps are building for smartphones only

“…looking at the number of users, the ROI does not justify the investment”.

That’s a frequent pushback from product managers and decision-makers, and if you’re just looking at top-line analytics comparing the number of tablet sessions to smartphone sessions, it might seem like a closed case.

While top-line analytics might show lower session numbers on tablets compared to smartphones, concluding that large screens aren’t worth the effort based solely on current volume can be a trap, causing you to miss out on valuable engagement and future opportunities.

Let’s take a deeper look into why:

1. The user experience ‘chicken and egg’ loop: Is it possible that the low usage is a symptom rather than the root cause? Users are quick to abandon apps that feel clunky or broken. If your app on large screens is a stretched-out phone interface, the app likely provides a negative user experience. The lack of users might reflect the lack of a good experience, not always necessarily lack of potential users.

2. Beyond user volume, look at user engagement: Don’t just count users, analyze their worth. Users interact with apps on large screens differently. The large screen often leads to longer sessions and more immersive experiences. As mentioned above, usage data shows that engagement time increases significantly for users who interact with apps on both their phone and tablet, as compared to phone only users.

3. Market evolution: The Android device ecosystem is continuing to evolve. With the rise of foldables, upcoming connected displays support in Android 16, and form factors like XR and Android Auto, adaptive design is now more critical than ever. Building for a specific screen size creates technical debt, and may slow your development velocity and compromise the product quality in the long run.

Okay, I am convinced. Where do I start?

For organizations ready to move forward, Android offers many resources and developer tools to optimize apps to be adaptive. See below for how to get started:

1.Check how your app looks on large screens today: Begin by looking at your app’s current state on tablets, foldables (in different postures), Chromebooks, and environments like desktop windowing. Confirm if your app is available on these devices or if you are unintentionally leaving out these users by requiring unnecessary features within your app.

2. Address common UI issues: Assess what feels awkward in your app UI today. We have a lot of guidance available on how you can easily translate your mobile app to other screens.

a. Check the Large screens design gallery for inspiration and understanding how your app UI can evolve across devices using proven solutions to common UI challenges.

b. Start with quick wins. For example, prevent buttons from stretching to the full screen width, or switch to a vertical navigation bar on large screens to improve ergonomics.

c. Identify patterns where canonical layouts (e.g. list-detail) could solve any UI awkwardness you identified. Could a list-detail view improve your app’s navigation? Would a supporting pane on the side make better use of the extra space than a bottom sheet?

3. Optimize your app incrementally, screen by screen: It may be helpful to prioritize how you approach optimization because not everything needs to be perfectly adaptive on day one. Incrementally improve your app based on what matters most – it’s not all or nothing.

a. Start with the foundations. Check out the large screen app quality guidelines which tier and prioritize the fixes that are most critical to users. Remove orientation restrictions to support portrait and landscape, and ensure support for resizability (for when users are in split screen), and prevent major stretching of buttons, text fields, and images. These foundational fixes are critical, especially with API changes in Android 16 that will make these aspects even more important.

b. Implement adaptive layout optimizations with a focus on core user journeys or screens first.

i. Identify screens where optimizations (for example a two-pane layout) offer the biggest UX win

ii. And then proceed to screens or parts of the app that are not as often used on large screens

c. Support input methods beyond touch, including keyboard, mouse, trackpad, and stylus input. With new form factors and connected displays support, this sets users up to interact with your UI seamlessly.

d. Add differentiating hero user experiences like support for tabletop mode or dual-screen mode on foldables. This can happen on a per-use-case basis – for example, tabletop mode is great for watching videos, and dual screen mode is great for video calls.

While there’s an upfront investment in adopting adaptive principles (using tools like Jetpack Compose and window size classes), the long-term payoff may be significant. By designing and building features once, and letting them adapt across screen sizes, the benefits outweigh the cost of creating multiple bespoke layouts. Check out the adaptive apps developer guidance for more.

Unlock your app’s potential with adaptive app design

The message for my fellow product managers, decision-makers, and businesses is clear: adaptive design will uplevel your app for high-quality Android experiences in 2025 and beyond. An adaptive, responsive UI is the scalable way to support the many devices in Android without developing on a per-form factor basis. If you ignore the diverse device ecosystem of foldables, tablets, Chromebooks, and emerging form factors like XR and cars, your business is accepting hidden costs from negative user reviews, lower discovery in Play, increased technical debt, and missed opportunities for increased user engagement and user acquisition.

Maximize your apps’ impact and unlock new user experiences. Learn more about building adaptive apps today.

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Peacock built adaptively on Android to deliver great experiences across screens

Seharakram60 — Fri, 30 May 2025 12:00:31 +0000

Posted by Sa-ryong Kang and Miguel Montemayor – Developer Relations Engineers

Peacock is NBCUniversal’s streaming service app available in the US, offering culture-defining entertainment including live sports, exclusive original content, TV shows, and blockbuster movies. The app continues to evolve, becoming more than just a platform to watch content, but a hub of entertainment.

Today’s users are consuming entertainment on an increasingly wider array of device sizes and types, and in particular are moving towards mobile devices. Peacock has adopted Jetpack Compose to help with its journey in adapting to more screens and meeting users where they are.

Disclaimer: Peacock is available in the US only. This video will only be viewable to US viewers.

Adapting to more flexible form factors

The Peacock development team is focused on bringing the best experience to users, no matter what device they’re using or when they want to consume content. With an emerging trend from app users to watch more on mobile devices and large screens like foldables, the Peacock app needs to be able to adapt to different screen sizes. As more devices are introduced, the team needed to explore new solutions that make the most out of each unique display permutation.

The goal was to have the Peacock app to adapt to these new displays while continually offering high-quality entertainment without interruptions, like the stream reloading or visual errors. While thinking ahead, they also wanted to prepare and build a solution that was ready for Android XR as the entertainment landscape is shifting towards including more immersive experiences.

Building a future-proof experience with Jetpack Compose

In order to build a scalable solution that would help the Peacock app continue to evolve, the app was migrated to Jetpack Compose, Android’s toolkit for building scalable UI. One of the essential tools they used was the WindowSizeClass API, which helps developers create and test UI layouts for different size ranges. This API then allows the app to seamlessly switch between pre-set layouts as it reaches established viewport breakpoints for different window sizes.

The API was used in conjunction with Kotlin Coroutines and Flows to keep the UI state responsive as the window size changed. To test their work and fine tune edge case devices, Peacock used the Android Studio emulator to simulate a wide range of Android-based devices.

Jetpack Compose allowed the team to build adaptively, so now the Peacock app responds to a wide variety of screens while offering a seamless experience to Android users. “The app feels more native, more fluid, and more intuitive across all form factors,” said Diego Valente, Head of Mobile, Peacock and Global Streaming. “That means users can start watching on a smaller screen and continue instantly on a larger one when they unfold the device—no reloads, no friction. It just works.”

Preparing for immersive entertainment experiences

In building adaptive apps on Android, John Jelley, Senior Vice President, Product & UX, Peacock and Global Streaming, says Peacock has also laid the groundwork to quickly adapt to the Android XR platform: “Android XR builds on the same large screen principles, our investment here naturally extends to those emerging experiences with less developmental work.”

The team is excited about the prospect of features unlocked by Android XR, like Multiview for sports and TV, which enables users to watch multiple games or camera angles at once. By tailoring spatial windows to the user’s environment, the app could offer new ways for users to interact with contextual metadata like sports stats or actor information—all without ever interrupting their experience.

Build adaptive apps

Learn how to unlock your app’s full potential on phones, tablets, foldables, and beyond.

Explore this announcement and all Google I/O 2025 updates on io.google starting May 22.

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