View and restrict your app's compatible devices (original) (raw)

After you've uploaded at least one app bundle to Play Console, you can view the catalog of available devices and review which devices are compatible with your app. To help ensure the widest availability of your app, review your supported and excluded devices lists regularly.

Go to the Device catalog page (Monitor and improve > Reach and devices > Device catalog).

Keep in mind, the device catalog doesn't apply to instant apps.

Getting started with the device catalog

This section contains all the information you need to know to start using the device catalog.

Accept the device catalog Terms of Service

The first time you access the device catalog, you must review and accept the Terms of Service. You must be the account owner or a user with the global Manage production releases permission to accept the new terms. Once you’ve accepted the terms for one app in your account, you’ll be able to continue using the device catalog for all of your apps.

If you don't accept the Terms of Service:

• You won't be able to access the device catalog.
• You won’t be able to exclude devices from distribution.

Understand core concepts

The questions below cover the core concepts around the device catalog and device restriction. Click on a question to expand and see the answer or collapse it.

What is a device model? What is a device variant?

A device model is a concept that is defined by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM). It is the way Play Console describes a device in order to narrow down its properties and cluster similar device models within the active Android devices that exist today.

A device model is composed of two attributes: retail brand and device. Both of these are specified by the OEM.

• Retail brand: android.os.Build.Brand. (Note that the brand is how the device is marketed, and may not be the same as the manufacturer.) Learn more
• Device: android.os.Build.Device. Learn more

For example, google oriole is a device model.

Each device model also has a user-facing name, known as the marketing name. For example, the marketing name for google oriole is Pixel 6.

A device model has a range of hardware and software attributes, and the device model alone may not be enough to specify these attributes uniquely. For example device models often have variants with different Android versions, RAM, storage

To summarize, here are the most important things to note about device models:

• The device alone is not unique and may be used by multiple manufacturers, so it shouldn't be used without the brand.
• The device model is not always sufficient to pinpoint the device specifications, because variants can exist.
• The marketing name is not sufficient to specify the device model, as a manufacturer can use the same marketing name for many different {brand device} combinations.

In Play Console, devices are displayed in the form {brand device} (Marketing name), for example: "google oriole (Pixel 6)," so that it’s easy to connect the user-facing name with the more specific underlying device specifications.

What devices show up in the catalog? When do new devices show up?

Devices show up in the catalog once they are being used by a critical mass of users.

The catalog shows both certified and uncertified devices. You can learn more about device certification below.

Will my app or game be available on a new device?

Any new device is available for serving, even before it's visible in the catalog, provided:

• It's covered by the device declarations in your app manifest; and
• It has not been excluded in Play Console.

This means users can install your app on uncertified device models unless you take steps to restrict this. You can learn more about device certification below.

What is device certification? How are uncertified devices treated on Google Play?

A certified device model is a device model that the OEM has certified as Android-compatible by uploading a copy of their Android compatibility test results to Google. An uncertified device model is a device model that the OEM has not certified as Android-compatible by uploading Android compatibility test results to Google. As a result:

• Uncertified devices may not be secure.
• Uncertified devices may not get Android system updates or app updates.
• Apps and features on uncertified devices may not work correctly.
• Data on uncertified devices may not back up securely.

Here's some important things to note about the treatment and behavior of certified and uncertified devices:

• Visibility in the catalog: Uncertified device models will show up in the device catalog when they have a critical mass of users. To see them, you can filter by device certification status in the device list. Certified device models can have uncertified variants. This occurs if devices report themselves as a certified device model, but do not pass Play Integrity checks. These do not show up in the device catalog.
• Distribution: Your app may be available for install from Google Play on uncertified device models unless you take steps to restrict this. Go to the Manage your app’s distribution on devices that don’t meet device integrity section below to learn more.
• Android vitals metrics: Only certified devices with full integrity contribute to the technical quality metrics in Vitals that affect your app’s discoverability and promotability on Google Play.

Understand your app's device targeting

The set of device models on which users can discover and install your app on Google Play is known as your targeted devices. Your targeted devices are determined by two things: your manifest declarations and your console exclusion rules. These declarations and rules operate on devices and apps at different levels of granularity.

Manifest declarations define what devices your app supports. They operate at the individual device level. For example, setting minSdk to Android 9 will ensure that only devices with Android 9+ are eligible for your app. If a device model has some variants on Android 9 and some on lower versions, then the variants on Android 9 will be eligible, but the lower versions below will not.

You can apply console exclusions at two levels:

1. At the device model level: In this scenario, all devices with this model are excluded.
2. At the rule level: Rule-based exclusions apply at the individual-device level, just like manifest declarations. This means that some device models may be shown in the catalog as partially excluded.

Note: Exclusions override supported devices declared in your app’s manifest.

To view all available devices, and understand where your app is available for distribution on Google Play:

1. Open Play Console and go to the Device catalog page (Monitor and improve > Reach and devices > Device catalog).
2. Select the All, Supported, Excluded, or Targeted tabs.
3. To download a list of devices as a CSV file, click Export device list near the right side of the page.

To understand the targeting status of an individual device model, view the "Status" column in the Device list or Device details pages. This shows the device targeting status for all active app bundles or APKs associated with your app. You can expand the section below to view possible device model targeting statuses.

Device model targeting statuses

• Supported : Your app is available to users of this device on Google Play.
• Partially supported : Your app is available to some variants of this device model but not all.
• Excluded by rule: Your app is not available to this device model. You'll see this status if you have an exclusion rule that covers this device model.
• Partially excluded by rule : Your app is available to some variants of this device model but not all. You may see this status if you have an exclusion rule on RAM, which can vary between variants of a device model.
• Manually excluded : Your app is not available to this device model. You’ll see this status only if you have manually excluded the device model.
• Unsupported : Your app is not available to any devices with this device model. You’ll see this status if your manifest requires a feature or property (for example, screen size or, SDK level) not available on the device. For example, some devices may not include a compass sensor. If your app's core functionality requires the use of a compass sensor, then your app isn't compatible with those devices.
  • Note: You'll see this status when all variants associated with a device model aren't compatible. If some variants are supported, the status will read "Partially supported."

Here are some important things to note about device targeting:

• Device exclusion is managed per app.
• Device supported status is displayed at track-level because it is declared in your manifest. Since you may have different bundles released to different tracks (production, open and closed testing, internal testing), in device details you'll also see a status for each track. For example, if the beta version of your app requires more features than the production version, you may notice that a device is supported in production but not in beta.

Search and filter the device list

The device list shows all device models for the tab that you have selected (all devices, supported devices, and so on), sorted by device model.

You can narrow down the list of devices in two ways:

1. Use the search bar at the top of the page to filter the list of models or search for individual device models.
2. Filter the list of device models by manufacturer, device, or other attributes.

View device details

To understand more about a device model including any variants, you can click through to the details page.

The details page gives you more information about the device specifications and variants for the selected device model. You can expand the section below to view possible device details.

Device details

• Summary : Important metrics for this device model on your app, and distributions of this device model by RAM and Android version for your app. This information can help you establish the right targeting logic for this device and trouble-shooting issues on the device model.
  Consistent attributes : Attributes that are the same for all variants of that device model.
  Variable attributes : Attributes that may vary for different versions or variants of the device model. You can narrow down the variants of interest by selecting attributes that are important.
  Variant list : The list of all known variants of this device model, taking into account any filters you have applied on variable attributes. The variant list only shows certified variants.
  Most popular variant : The variant of this device model which has the most installs from Google Play. This includes all apps on Google Play, and is not specific to your app. If a device model has a lot of variants, the most popular variant can help reference point when establishing what device model to obtain or test on.

Exclude your app from distribution to certain devices

You can set up rules to exclude devices from your app’s distribution on Google Play. Excluded devices won’t be able to see or install your app on Google Play.

Tips:

• Device exclusion rules don't apply to internal testers.
• Device exclusion based on integrity checks is managed from the App integrity page (Test and release > App integrity). Visit this Help Center page to learn how to turn on integrity checks for your store listing so that Google Play can check that devices pass integrity checks before making your store listing visible to users.

You can expand and collapse the sections below to understand different app distribution management options.

Manage your app’s distribution on specific device models

By manually excluding devices with known compatibility issues, you can help provide a better experience for your users. This is known as manual exclusion.

Before you exclude any devices, note the following:

• Making this change excludes the selected device model(s) for your whole app. You can’t exclude individual app bundles or APKs.
• Device model exclusions affect all device variants including future variants. If your motivation for exclusion is to ensure your app is not available on low-spec device models, consider using rules-based exclusions instead.

Exclude a device

1. Open Play Console and go to the Device catalog page (Monitor and improve > Reach and devices > Device catalog).
2. Select the device model which you wish to exclude and go to the details page.
3. At the top right of your screen, select Exclude device. The device model you selected in step 2, including all variants, will now be excluded.

Manage your app’s distribution using rules based on device specification

If you want to exclude devices by performance indicators, you can create targeting rules based on RAM size or System on Chip (SoC).

For example, if your app requires significant data storage, you can set up a rule to exclude devices with less than 512 MB RAM.

Before setting up any rule-based exclusions, note the following:

• Rule-based exclusions apply to new devices added to the catalog that meet the exclusion criteria.
• RAM rules only work for devices on Android 4.1 and above (SDK 16+) and don't apply to Wear OS APKs. RAM rules are based on the total memory on the device (TotalMem), not the branded memory.

Set up a rule

1. Open Play Console and go to the Device catalog page (Monitor and improve > Reach and devices > Device catalog).
2. Select Manage exclusion rules near the top right of the page.
3. Select RAM or System on Chip.
   • To add multiple rules, select the OR button. Another selector will appear.
   • To remove a rule, select the cancel icon .
4. Review the device list that appears at the bottom of your screen.
5. Once your rule targets the right device list, save your changes.

Manage your app’s distribution on devices with Android Go compatibility

You can exclude your app from being available on certain devices based on compatibility with Android (Go edition).

Android (Go edition) details

Android (Go edition) optimizes the Android experience on entry-level devices running Android 8.1 (API level 27) or higher with 1 GB of RAM or less. Learn how to optimize your apps for devices running Android (Go edition).

Set up device exclusion rules for Android (Go edition)

1. Open Play Console and go to the Device catalog page (Monitor and improve > Reach and devices > Device catalog).
2. Select the Excluded devices tab.
3. Next to "Exclusion rules," select Manage exclusion rules.
4. Next to "Android Go Exclusions," select an option:
   • Android Go Exclusions
     * Don’t exclude Android Go devices: Selected by default.
     * Exclude Android Go devices: Prevent devices running Android Oreo (Go edition) from installing your app on Google Play.

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