Android includes facilities that automatically adjust application assets and UI layouts appropriately for the device to ensure that third-party applications run well on a variety of hardware configurations. Devices MUST properly implement these APIs and behaviors, as detailed in this section.
The units referenced by the requirements in this section are defined as follows:
Android Watch devices (detailed in section 2) MAY have smaller screen sizes as described in this section.
The Android UI framework supports a variety of different screen sizes, and allows applications to query the device screen size (aka “screen layout") via android.content.res.Configuration.screenLayout with the SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_MASK. Device implementations MUST report the correct screen size as defined in the Android SDK documentation and determined by the upstream Android platform. Specifically, device implementations MUST report the correct screen size according to the following logical density-independent pixel (dp) screen dimensions.
In addition:
Devices MUST NOT change their reported screen size at any time.
Applications optionally indicate which screen sizes they support via the <supports-screens> attribute in the AndroidManifest.xml file. Device implementations MUST correctly honor applications' stated support for small, normal, large, and xlarge screens, as described in the Android SDK documentation.
While there is no restriction to the screen aspect ratio value of the physical screen display, the screen aspect ratio of the surface that third-party apps are rendered on and which can be derived from the values reported via the DisplayMetrics MUST meet the following requirements:
The Android UI framework defines a set of standard logical densities to help application developers target application resources. Device implementations MUST report only one of the following logical Android framework densities through the android.util.DisplayMetrics APIs, and MUST execute applications at this standard density and MUST NOT change the value at at any time for the default display.
Device implementations SHOULD define the standard Android framework density that is numerically closest to the physical density of the screen, unless that logical density pushes the reported screen size below the minimum supported. If the standard Android framework density that is numerically closest to the physical density results in a screen size that is smaller than the smallest supported compatible screen size (320 dp width), device implementations SHOULD report the next lowest standard Android framework density.
Device implementations are STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to provide users a setting to change the display size. If there is an implementation to change the display size of the device, it MUST align with the AOSP implementation as indicated below:
Device implementations MUST report correct values for all display metrics defined in android.util.DisplayMetrics and MUST report the same values regardless of whether the embedded or external screen is used as the default display.
Devices MUST report which screen orientations they support (android.hardware.screen.portrait and/or android.hardware.screen.landscape) and MUST report at least one supported orientation. For example, a device with a fixed orientation landscape screen, such as a television or laptop, SHOULD only report android.hardware.screen.landscape.
Devices that report both screen orientations MUST support dynamic orientation by applications to either portrait or landscape screen orientation. That is, the device must respect the application’s request for a specific screen orientation. Device implementations MAY select either portrait or landscape orientation as the default.
Devices MUST report the correct value for the device’s current orientation, whenever queried via the android.content.res.Configuration.orientation, android.view.Display.getOrientation(), or other APIs.
Devices MUST NOT change the reported screen size or density when changing orientation.
Device implementations MUST support both OpenGL ES 1.0 and 2.0, as embodied and detailed in the Android SDK documentations. Device implementations SHOULD support OpenGL ES 3.0, 3.1, or 3.2 on devices capable of supporting it. Device implementations MUST also support Android RenderScript, as detailed in the Android SDK documentation.
Device implementations MUST also correctly identify themselves as supporting OpenGL ES 1.0, OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenGL ES 3.0, OpenGL 3.1, or OpenGL 3.2. That is:
Android provides an OpenGL ES extension pack with Java interfaces and native support for advanced graphics functionality such as tessellation and the ASTC texture compression format. Android device implementations MUST support the extension pack if the device supports OpenGL ES 3.2 and MAY support it otherwise. If the extension pack is supported in its entirety, the device MUST identify the support through the android.hardware.opengles.aep feature flag.
Also, device implementations MAY implement any desired OpenGL ES extensions. However, device implementations MUST report via the OpenGL ES managed and native APIs all extension strings that they do support, and conversely MUST NOT report extension strings that they do not support.
Note that Android includes support for applications to optionally specify that they require specific OpenGL texture compression formats. These formats are typically vendor-specific. Device implementations are not required by Android to implement any specific texture compression format. However, they SHOULD accurately report any texture compression formats that they do support, via the getString() method in the OpenGL API.
Android includes a mechanism for applications to declare that they want to enable hardware acceleration for 2D graphics at the Application, Activity, Window, or View level through the use of a manifest tag android:hardwareAccelerated or direct API calls.
Device implementations MUST enable hardware acceleration by default, and MUST disable hardware acceleration if the developer so requests by setting android:hardwareAccelerated="false” or disabling hardware acceleration directly through the Android View APIs.
In addition, device implementations MUST exhibit behavior consistent with the Android SDK documentation on hardware acceleration.
Android includes a TextureView object that lets developers directly integrate hardware-accelerated OpenGL ES textures as rendering targets in a UI hierarchy. Device implementations MUST support the TextureView API, and MUST exhibit consistent behavior with the upstream Android implementation.
Android includes support for EGL_ANDROID_RECORDABLE, an EGLConfig attribute that indicates whether the EGLConfig supports rendering to an ANativeWindow that records images to a video. Device implementations MUST support EGL_ANDROID_RECORDABLE extension.
Android specifies a “compatibility mode” in which the framework operates in a ‘normal’ screen size equivalent (320dp width) mode for the benefit of legacy applications not developed for old versions of Android that pre-date screen-size independence.
The Android platform includes APIs that allow applications to render rich graphics to the display. Devices MUST support all of these APIs as defined by the Android SDK unless specifically allowed in this document.
Android includes support for secondary display to enable media sharing capabilities and developer APIs for accessing external displays. If a device supports an external display either via a wired, wireless, or an embedded additional display connection then the device implementation MUST implement the display manager API as described in the Android SDK documentation.