Detecting Phones, Tablets, and Google TV in Android

When building an Android app, you face a fundamental decision: create a single app version supporting multiple device types, or upload separate optimized versions to Google Play Store.

Single App vs Multiple Apps

Single App Approach:

• ✅ Less code to maintain
• ✅ Greater scalability
• ❌ Requires device-specific routing logic

Multiple App Approach:

• ✅ Google Play handles filtering upfront
• ❌ Bug fixes require multiple app updates

The Solution: Utility Methods

Google’s IO Sched application provides an excellent example of the single-app approach. Here are the key utility methods for device detection:

public class UIUtils {

    public static boolean hasHoneycomb() {
        return Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB;
    }

    public static boolean isTablet(Context context) {
        return (context.getResources().getConfiguration().screenLayout
                & Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_MASK)
                >= Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_LARGE;
    }

    public static boolean isHoneycombTablet(Context context) {
        return hasHoneycomb() && isTablet(context);
    }

    public static boolean isGoogleTV(Context context) {
        return context.getPackageManager()
                .hasSystemFeature("com.google.android.tv");
    }
}

Practical Implementation

Using the Facade pattern, you can conditionally load different activities based on device type:

Intent intent;
if (UIUtils.isTablet(this)) {
    intent = new Intent(this, MapMultiPaneActivity.class);
} else {
    intent = new Intent(this, MapActivity.class);
}
startActivity(intent);

This approach lets you maintain a single codebase while still providing optimized experiences for different device form factors.

Credit

These utility methods are derived from Google’s open-source IO Sched application code.