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Explicity tell the Play Store we support various screens#3178

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freebeartogoodhome wants to merge 1 commit into
lichess-org:mainfrom
freebeartogoodhome:screenSize
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Explicity tell the Play Store we support various screens#3178
freebeartogoodhome wants to merge 1 commit into
lichess-org:mainfrom
freebeartogoodhome:screenSize

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@freebeartogoodhome
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This might fix #875 and I think there is no real harm in trying.

The Play Store occasionally applies implicit filtering where it hides apps from devices with unusual aspect ratios or similar reasons. I'm setting these as metadata for the Play Store's distribution engine. I know these are technically deprecated but this is an attempt to fix Google Play Store filtering issues and shouldn't change any app behavior.

We can check if @veloce or someone else with access can go to Google Play Console

-> Reach and devices > Device catalog.

Search for "Fire Max 11" or "Titan Pocket."

Check the Status and see if it says "Screen layout" or something like "Missing feature: android.hardware.telephony"

@veloce
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veloce commented May 19, 2026

Are you sure this will do anything @freebeartogoodhome ? Please link the android documentation about this.

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This was an educated guess based on what I could see about those devices (unusual screens) and from reading https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/supports-screens-element and https://developer.android.com/google/play/filters (Last updated 2025-07-21)

I am finding out that when a device has an "unusual" aspect ratio, Google Play’s backend sometimes fails to apply the standard API 4+ default rule. Instead, it hits a fallback safety check: "If the developer didn't explicitly guarantee they support non-standard dimensions, hide the app to prevent a bad user experience."

Also, if any third-party SDK mention then we are possibly getting a restriction on our screen support since we have nothing in our main AndroidManifest.xml.

This was an attempt to override any filtering that Google Play Store is doing that is incorrectly hiding some apps from us.
If you can check Google Play Console
-> Reach and devices > Device catalog.
Search for "Fire Max 11" or "Titan Pocket."
Check the Status and see if it says "Screen layout" or something like "Missing feature: android.hardware.telephony"

Then we can know if I'm way off track here. That is the only way to be 100% sure, but I felt like this was a good guess as to why based on the fact the two devices in that thread had unusual screens; and based on what I read about how the Google Play Store filters can work differently than we expect.

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New Lichess app no longer available for Amazon Fire Max 11 tablet

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