In this document
Google Play Filtering
Google Play uses the <uses-feature>
elements declared in your app manifest to filter your app from devices
that do not meet it's hardware and software feature requirements.
By specifying the features that your application requires, you enable Google Play to present your application only to users whose devices meet the application's feature requirements, rather than presenting it to all users.
For important information about how Google Play uses features as the basis for filtering, please read Google Play and Feature-Based Filtering, below.
- syntax:
-
<uses-feature android:name="string" android:required=["true" | "false"] android:glEsVersion="integer" />
- contained in:
<manifest>
- description:
- Declares a single hardware or software feature that is used by the
application.
The purpose of a
<uses-feature>
declaration is to inform any external entity of the set of hardware and software features on which your application depends. The element offers arequired
attribute that lets you specify whether your application requires and cannot function without the declared feature, or whether it prefers to have the feature but can function without it. Because feature support can vary across Android devices, the<uses-feature>
element serves an important role in letting an application describe the device-variable features that it uses.The set of available features that your application declares corresponds to the set of feature constants made available by the Android
PackageManager
, which are listed for convenience in the Features Reference tables at the bottom of this document.You must specify each feature in a separate
<uses-feature>
element, so if your application requires multiple features, it would declare multiple<uses-feature>
elements. For example, an application that requires both Bluetooth and camera features in the device would declare these two elements:<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.bluetooth" /> <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera" />
In general, you should always make sure to declare
<uses-feature>
elements for all of the features that your application requires.Declared
<uses-feature>
elements are informational only, meaning that the Android system itself does not check for matching feature support on the device before installing an application. However, other services (such as Google Play) or applications may check your application's<uses-feature>
declarations as part of handling or interacting with your application. For this reason, it's very important that you declare all of the features (from the list below) that your application uses.For some features, there may exist a specific attribute that allows you to define a version of the feature, such as the version of Open GL used (declared with
glEsVersion
). Other features that either do or do not exist for a device, such as a camera, are declared using thename
attribute.Although the
<uses-feature>
element is only activated for devices running API Level 4 or higher, it is recommended to include these elements for all applications, even if theminSdkVersion
is "3" or lower. Devices running older versions of the platform will simply ignore the element.Note: When declaring a feature, remember that you must also request permissions as appropriate. For example, you must still request the
CAMERA
permission before your application can access the camera API. Requesting the permission grants your application access to the appropriate hardware and software, while declaring the features used by your application ensures proper device compatibility. - attributes:
-
android:name
- Specifies a single hardware or software feature used by the application, as a descriptor string. Valid descriptor values are listed in the Hardware features and Software features tables, below. Descriptor string values are case-sensitive.
android:required
- Boolean value that indicates whether the application requires
the feature specified in
android:name
.- When you declare
"android:required="true"
for a feature, you are specifying that the application cannot function, or is not designed to function, when the specified feature is not present on the device. - When you declare
"android:required="false"
for a feature, it means that the application prefers to use the feature if present on the device, but that it is designed to function without the specified feature, if necessary.
The default value for
android:required
if not declared is"true"
. - When you declare
android:glEsVersion
- The OpenGL ES version required by the application. The higher 16 bits
represent the major number and the lower 16 bits represent the minor number. For
example, to specify OpenGL ES version 2.0, you would set the value as
"0x00020000", or to specify OpenGL ES 3.0, you would set the value as "0x00030000".
An application should specify at most one
android:glEsVersion
attribute in its manifest. If it specifies more than one, theandroid:glEsVersion
with the numerically highest value is used and any other values are ignored.If an application does not specify an
android:glEsVersion
attribute, then it is assumed that the application requires only OpenGL ES 1.0, which is supported by all Android-powered devices.An application can assume that if a platform supports a given OpenGL ES version, it also supports all numerically lower OpenGL ES versions. Therefore, an application that requires both OpenGL ES 1.0 and OpenGL ES 2.0 must specify that it requires OpenGL ES 2.0.
An application that can work with any of several OpenGL ES versions should only specify the numerically lowest version of OpenGL ES that it requires. (It can check at run-time whether a higher level of OpenGL ES is available.)
For more information about using OpenGL ES, including how to check the supported OpenGL ES version at runtime, see the OpenGL ES API guide.
- introduced in:
- API Level 4
- see also:
Google Play and Feature-Based Filtering
Google Play filters the applications that are visible to users, so that users can see and download only those applications that are compatible with their devices. One of the ways it filters applications is by feature compatibility.
To determine an application's feature compatibility with a given user's device, Google Play compares:
- Features required by the application — an application declares features in
<uses-feature>
elements in its manifest
with... - Features available on the device, in hardware or software — a device reports the features it supports as read-only system properties.
To ensure an accurate comparison of features, the Android Package Manager
provides a shared set of feature constants that both applications and devices
use to declare feature requirements and support. The available feature constants
are listed in the Features Reference tables at
the bottom of this document, and in the class documentation for PackageManager
.
When the user launches Google Play, the application queries the
Package Manager for the list of features available on the device by calling
getSystemAvailableFeatures()
. The
Store application then passes the features list up to Google Play
when establishing the session for the user.
Each time you upload an application to the Google Play Developer Console,
Google Play scans the application's manifest file. It looks for
<uses-feature>
elements and evaluates them in combination
with other elements, in some cases, such as <uses-sdk>
and
<uses-permission>
elements. After establishing the
application's set of required features, it stores that list internally as
metadata associated with the application .apk
and the application
version.
When a user searches or browses for applications using the Google Play application, the service compares the features needed by each application with the features available on the user's device. If all of an application's required features are present on the device, Google Play allows the user to see the application and potentially download it. If any required feature is not supported by the device, Google Play filters the application so that it is not visible to the user and not available for download.
Because the features you declare in <uses-feature>
elements directly affect how Google Play filters your application, it's
important to understand how Google Play evaluates the application's manifest
and establishes the set of required features. The sections below provide more
information.
Filtering based on explicitly declared features
An explicitly declared feature is one that your application declares in a
<uses-feature>
element. The feature declaration can include
an android:required=["true" | "false"]
attribute (if you are
compiling against API level 5 or higher), which lets you specify whether the
application absolutely requires the feature and cannot function properly without
it ("true"
), or whether the application prefers to use the feature
if available, but is designed to run without it ("false"
).
Google Play handles explicitly declared features in this way:
- If a feature is explicitly declared as being required, Google Play adds
the feature to the list of required features for the application. It then
filters the application from users on devices that do not provide that feature.
For example:
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera" android:required="true" />
- If a feature is explicitly declared as not being required, Google
Play does not add the feature to the list of required features. For
that reason, an explicitly declared non-required feature is never considered when
filtering the application. Even if the device does not provide the declared
feature, Google Play will still consider the application compatible with the
device and will show it to the user, unless other filtering rules apply. For
example:
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera" android:required="false" />
- If a feature is explicitly declared, but without an
android:required
attribute, Google Play assumes that the feature is required and sets up filtering on it.
In general, if your application is designed to run on Android 1.6 and earlier
versions, the android:required
attribute is not available in the
API and Google Play assumes that any and all
<uses-feature>
declarations are required.
Note: By declaring a feature explicitly and
including an android:required="false"
attribute, you can
effectively disable all filtering on Google Play for the specified feature.
Filtering based on implicit features
An implicit feature is one that an application requires in order to
function properly, but which is not declared in a
<uses-feature>
element in the manifest file. Strictly
speaking, every application should always declare all features that it
uses or requires, so the absence of a declaration for a feature used by an
application should be considered an error. However, as a safeguard for users and
developers, Google Play looks for implicit features in each application and
sets up filters for those features, just as it would do for an explicitly
declared feature.
An application might require a feature but not declare it because:
- The application was compiled against an older version of the Android library
(Android 1.5 or earlier) and the
<uses-feature>
element was not available. - The developer incorrectly assumed that the feature would be present on all devices and a declaration was unnecessary.
- The developer omitted the feature declaration accidentally.
- The developer declared the feature explicitly, but the declaration was not
valid. For example, a spelling error in the
<uses-feature>
element name or an unrecognized string value for theandroid:name
attribute would invalidate the feature declaration.
To account for the cases above, Google Play attempts to discover an
application's implied feature requirements by examining other elements
declared in the manifest file, specifically,
<uses-permission>
elements.
If an application requests hardware-related permissions, Google Play
assumes that the application uses the underlying hardware features and
therefore requires those features, even though there might be no
corresponding to <uses-feature>
declarations. For such
permissions, Google Play adds the underlying hardware features to the
metadata that it stores for the application and sets up filters for them.
For example, if an application requests the CAMERA
permission
but does not declare a <uses-feature>
element for
android.hardware.camera
, Google Play considers that the
application requires a camera and should not be shown to users whose devices do
not offer a camera.
If you don't want Google Play to filter based on a specific implied
feature, you can disable that behavior. To do so, declare the feature explicitly
in a <uses-feature>
element and include an
android:required="false"
attribute. For example, to disable
filtering derived from the CAMERA
permission, you would declare
the feature as shown below.
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera" android:required="false" />
It's important to understand that the permissions that you
request in <uses-permission>
elements can directly affect how
Google Play filters your application. The reference section Permissions that Imply Feature Requirements,
below, lists the full set of permissions that imply feature requirements and
therefore trigger filtering.
Special handling for Bluetooth feature
Google Play applies slightly different rules than described above, when determining filtering for Bluetooth.
If an application declares a Bluetooth permission in a
<uses-permission>
element, but does not explicitly declare
the Bluetooth feature in a <uses-feature>
element, Google
Play checks the version(s) of the Android platform on which the application is
designed to run, as specified in the <uses-sdk>
element.
As shown in the table below, Google Play enables filtering for the
Bluetooth feature only if the application declares its lowest or targeted
platform as Android 2.0 (API level 5) or higher. However, note that Google
Play applies the normal rules for filtering when the application explicitly
declares the Bluetooth feature in a <uses-feature>
element.
minSdkVersion is ... |
targetSdkVersion is |
Result |
---|---|---|
<=4 | Google Play will not filter the application from any devices
based on their reported support for the android.hardware.bluetooth
feature. |
|
<=4 | >=5 | Google Play filters the application from any devices that
do not support the android.hardware.bluetooth feature (including
older releases). |
>=5 | >=5 |
The examples below illustrate the different filtering effects, based on how Google Play handles the Bluetooth feature.
- In first example, an application that is designed to run on older API levels
declares a Bluetooth permission, but does not declare the Bluetooth feature in a
<uses-feature>
element. - Result: Google Play does not filter the application from any device.
<manifest ...> <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN" /> <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="3" /> ... </manifest>
- In the second example, below, the same application also declares a target API level of "5".
- Result: Google Play now assumes that the feature is required and will filter the application from all devices that do not report Bluetooth support, including devices running older versions of the platform.
<manifest ...> <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN" /> <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="3" android:targetSdkVersion="5" /> ... </manifest>
- Here the same application now specifically declares the Bluetooth feature.
- Result: Identical to the previous example (filtering is applied).
<manifest ...> <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.bluetooth" /> <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN" /> <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="3" android:targetSdkVersion="5" /> ... </manifest>
- Finally, in the case below, the same application adds an
android:required="false"
attribute. - Result: Google Play disables filtering based on Bluetooth feature support, for all devices.
<manifest ...> <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.bluetooth" android:required="false" /> <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN" /> <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="3" android:targetSdkVersion="5" /> ... </manifest>
Testing the features required by your application
You can use the aapt
tool, included in the Android SDK, to
determine how Google Play will filter your application, based on its declared
features and permissions. To do so, run aapt
with the dump
badging
command. This causes aapt
to parse your
application's manifest and apply the same rules as used by Google Play to
determine the features that your application requires.
To use the tool, follow these steps:
- First, build and export your application as an unsigned
.apk
. If you are developing in Eclipse with ADT, right-click the project and select Android Tools > Export Unsigned Application Package. Select a destination filename and path and click OK. - Next, locate the
aapt
tool, if it is not already in your PATH. If you are using SDK Tools r8 or higher, you can findaapt
in the<SDK>/platform-tools/
directory.Note: You must use the version of
aapt
that is provided for the latest Platform-Tools component available. If you do not have the latest Platform-Tools component, download it using the Android SDK Manager. - Run
aapt
using this syntax:
$ aapt dump badging <path_to_exported_.apk>
Here's an example of the command output for the second Bluetooth example, above:
$ ./aapt dump badging BTExample.apk package: name='com.example.android.btexample' versionCode='' versionName='' uses-permission:'android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN' uses-feature:'android.hardware.bluetooth' sdkVersion:'3' targetSdkVersion:'5' application: label='BT Example' icon='res/drawable/app_bt_ex.png' launchable activity name='com.example.android.btexample.MyActivity'label='' icon='' uses-feature:'android.hardware.touchscreen' main supports-screens: 'small' 'normal' 'large' locales: '--_--' densities: '160'
Features Reference
The tables below provide reference information about hardware and software features and the permissions that can imply them on Google Play.
Hardware features
The table below describes the hardware feature descriptors supported by the
most current platform release. To signal that your application uses or requires
a hardware feature, declare each value in a android:name
attribute
in a separate <uses-feature>
element.
Feature Type | Feature Descriptor | Description | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Audio | android.hardware.audio.low_latency |
The application uses a low-latency audio pipeline on the device and is sensitive to delays or lag in sound input or output. | |
Bluetooth | android.hardware.bluetooth |
The application uses Bluetooth radio features in the device. | |
android.hardware.bluetooth_le |
The application uses Bluetooth Low Energy radio features in the device. | ||
Camera | android.hardware.camera |
The application uses the device's camera. If the device supports multiple cameras, the application uses the camera that facing away from the screen. | |
android.hardware.camera.autofocus |
Subfeature. The application uses the device camera's autofocus capability. | These subfeatures implicitly declare the
android.hardware.camera parent feature, unless declared with
android:required="false" . |
|
android.hardware.camera.flash |
Subfeature. The application uses the device camera's flash. | ||
android.hardware.camera.front |
Subfeature. The application uses a front-facing camera on the device. | ||
android.hardware.camera.any |
The application uses at least one camera facing in any direction, or an
external camera device if one is connected. Use this in preference to
android.hardware.camera if a back-facing camera is not required.
|
||
android.hardware.camera.external |
The application uses an external camera device if one is connected. | ||
Infrared | android.hardware.consumerir |
The application uses the consumer IR capabilities on the device. | |
Location | android.hardware.location |
The application uses one or more features on the device for determining location, such as GPS location, network location, or cell location. | |
android.hardware.location.network |
Subfeature. The application uses coarse location coordinates obtained from a network-based geolocation system supported on the device. | These subfeatures implicitly declare the
android.hardware.location parent feature, unless declared with
android:required="false" . |
|
android.hardware.location.gps |
Subfeature. The application uses precise location coordinates obtained from a Global Positioning System receiver on the device. | ||
Microphone | android.hardware.microphone |
The application uses a microphone on the device. | |
NFC | android.hardware.nfc |
The application uses Near Field Communications radio features in the device. | |
android.hardware.nfc.hce |
The application uses the NFC card emulation feature in the device. | ||
Sensors | android.hardware.sensor.accelerometer |
The application uses motion readings from an accelerometer on the device. | |
android.hardware.sensor.barometer |
The application uses the device's barometer. | ||
android.hardware.sensor.compass |
The application uses directional readings from a magnetometer (compass) on the device. | ||
android.hardware.sensor.gyroscope |
The application uses the device's gyroscope sensor. | ||
android.hardware.sensor.light |
The application uses the device's light sensor. | ||
android.hardware.sensor.proximity |
The application uses the device's proximity sensor. | ||
android.hardware.sensor.stepcounter |
The application uses the device's step counter. | ||
android.hardware.sensor.stepdetector |
The application uses the device's step detector. | ||
Screen | android.hardware.screen.landscape |
The application requires landscape orientation. |
For example, if your app requires portrait orientation, you should declare
Both orientations are assumed not required, by default, so your app may be installed
on devices that support one or both orientations. However, if any of your activities request that
they run in a specific orientation, using the For backwards compatibility, any device running a platform version that supports only API level 12 or lower is assumed to support both landscape and portrait. |
android.hardware.screen.portrait |
The application requires portrait orientation. | ||
Telephony | android.hardware.telephony |
The application uses telephony features on the device, such as telephony radio with data communication services. | |
android.hardware.telephony.cdma |
Subfeature. The application uses CDMA telephony radio features on the device. | These subfeatures implicitly declare the
android.hardware.telephony parent feature, unless declared with
android:required="false" . |
|
android.hardware.telephony.gsm |
Subfeature. The application uses GSM telephony radio features on the device. | ||
Television | android.hardware.type.television |
The application is designed for a television user experience. | This feature defines "television" to be a typical living room television experience: displayed on a big screen, where the user is sitting far away and the dominant form of input is something like a d-pad, and generally not through touch or a mouse/pointer-device. |
Touchscreen | android.hardware.faketouch |
The application uses basic touch interaction events, such as "click down", "click up", and drag. | When declared as required, this indicates that the application is compatible with a device only if it offers an emulated touchscreen ("fake touch" interface), or better. A device that offers a fake touch interface provides a user input system that emulates a subset of touchscreen capabilities. For example, a mouse or remote control that drives an on-screen cursor provides a fake touch interface. If your application requires basic point and click interaction (in other words, it won't work with only a d-pad controller), you should declare this feature. Because this is the minimum level of touch interaction, your app will also be compatible with devices that offer more complex touch interfaces. Note: Because applications require the |
android.hardware.faketouch.multitouch.distinct |
The application performs distinct tracking of two or more "fingers" on a fake touch interface. This is a superset of the faketouch feature. | When declared as required, this indicates that the application is compatible with a device only if it supports touch emulation for events that supports distinct tracking of two or more fingers, or better. Unlike the distinct multitouch defined by |
|
android.hardware.faketouch.multitouch.jazzhand |
The application performs distinct tracking of five or more "fingers" on a fake touch interface. This is a superset of the faketouch feature. | When declared as required, this indicates that the application is compatible with a device only if it supports touch emulation for events that supports distinct tracking of five or more fingers. Unlike the distinct multitouch defined by |
|
android.hardware.touchscreen |
The application uses touchscreen capabilities for gestures that are more interactive than basic touch events, such as a fling. This is a superset of the basic faketouch feature. | By default, your application requires this. As such, your application is not
available to devices that provide only an emulated touch interface ("fake touch"), by default. If
you want your application available to devices that provide a fake touch interface (or even devices
that provide only a d-pad controller), you must explicitly declare that a touch screen is not
required, by declaring If your application does require a touch interface (in order to perform touch gestures such as a fling), then you don't need to do anything, because this is required by default. However, it's best if you explicitly declare all features used by your application, so you should still declare this if your app uses it. If you require more complex touch interaction, such as multi-finger gestures, you should declare the advanced touch screen features below. |
|
android.hardware.touchscreen.multitouch |
The application uses basic two-point multitouch capabilities on the device screen, such as for pinch gestures, but does not need to track touches independently. This is a superset of touchscreen feature. | This implicitly declares the android.hardware.touchscreen parent feature, unless
declared with android:required="false" . |
|
android.hardware.touchscreen.multitouch.distinct |
Subfeature. The application uses advanced multipoint multitouch capabilities on the device screen, such as for tracking two or more points fully independently. This is a superset of multitouch feature. | This implicitly declares the android.hardware.touchscreen.multitouch
parent feature, unless declared with android:required="false" . |
|
android.hardware.touchscreen.multitouch.jazzhand |
The application uses advanced multipoint multitouch capabilities on the device screen, for tracking up to five points fully independently. This is a superset of distinct multitouch feature. | ||
USB | android.hardware.usb.host |
The application uses USB host mode features (behaves as the host and connects to USB devices). | |
android.hardware.usb.accessory |
The application uses USB accessory features (behaves as the USB device and connects to USB hosts). | ||
Wi-Fi | android.hardware.wifi |
The application uses 802.11 networking (Wi-Fi) features on the device. | |
android.hardware.wifi.direct |
The application uses the Wi-Fi Direct networking features on the device. |
Software features
The table below describes the software feature descriptors supported by the
most current platform release. To signal that your application uses or requires
a software feature, declare each value in a android:name
attribute
in a separate <uses-feature>
element.
Feature | Attribute Value | Description |
---|---|---|
App Widgets | android.software.app_widgets |
The application uses or provides App Widgets and should be installed only on devices that include a Home screen or similar location where users can embed App Widgets. |
Device Management | android.software.device_admin |
The application uses device policy enforcement via device administrators. |
Home Screen | android.software.home_screen |
The application behaves as a Home screen replacement and should be installed only on devices that support third-party Home screen apps. |
Input Method | android.software.input_methods |
The application provides a custom input method and should be installed only on devices that support third-party input methods. |
Live Wallpaper | android.software.live_wallpaper |
The application uses or provides Live Wallpapers and should be installed only on devices that support Live Wallpapers. |
SIP/VOIP | android.software.sip |
The application uses SIP service on the device and should be installed only on devices that support SIP. |
android.software.sip.voip |
Subfeature. The application uses SIP-based VOIP service on the device. This subfeature implicitly declares the |
Permissions that Imply Feature Requirements
Some feature constants listed in the tables above were made available to
applications after the corresponding API; for example, the
android.hardware.bluetooth
feature was added in Android 2.2 (API
level 8), but the bluetooth API that it refers to was added in Android 2.0 (API
level 5). Because of this, some apps were able to use the API before they had
the ability to declare that they require the API via the
<uses-feature>
system.
To prevent those apps from being made available unintentionally, Google
Play assumes that certain hardware-related permissions indicate that the
underlying hardware features are required by default. For instance, applications
that use Bluetooth must request the BLUETOOTH
permission in a
<uses-permission>
element — for legacy apps, Google
Play assumes that the permission declaration means that the underlying
android.hardware.bluetooth
feature is required by the application
and sets up filtering based on that feature.
The table below lists permissions that imply feature requirements
equivalent to those declared in <uses-feature>
elements. Note
that <uses-feature>
declarations, including any declared
android:required
attribute, always take precedence over features
implied by the permissions below.
For any of the permissions below, you can disable filtering based on the
implied feature by explicitly declaring the implied feature explicitly, in a
<uses-feature>
element, with an
android:required="false"
attribute. For example, to disable any
filtering based on the CAMERA
permission, you would add this
<uses-feature>
declaration to the manifest file:
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera" android:required="false" />
Category | This Permission... | Implies This Feature Requirement |
---|---|---|
Bluetooth | BLUETOOTH |
android.hardware.bluetooth
(See Special handling for Bluetooth feature for details.) |
BLUETOOTH_ADMIN |
android.hardware.bluetooth |
|
Camera | CAMERA |
android.hardware.camera and
android.hardware.camera.autofocus |
Location | ACCESS_MOCK_LOCATION |
android.hardware.location |
ACCESS_LOCATION_EXTRA_COMMANDS |
android.hardware.location |
|
INSTALL_LOCATION_PROVIDER |
android.hardware.location |
|
ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION |
android.hardware.location.network and
android.hardware.location |
|
ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION |
android.hardware.location.gps and
android.hardware.location |
|
Microphone | RECORD_AUDIO |
android.hardware.microphone |
Telephony | CALL_PHONE |
android.hardware.telephony |
CALL_PRIVILEGED |
android.hardware.telephony |
|
MODIFY_PHONE_STATE |
android.hardware.telephony |
|
PROCESS_OUTGOING_CALLS |
android.hardware.telephony |
|
READ_SMS |
android.hardware.telephony |
|
RECEIVE_SMS |
android.hardware.telephony |
|
RECEIVE_MMS |
android.hardware.telephony |
|
RECEIVE_WAP_PUSH |
android.hardware.telephony |
|
SEND_SMS |
android.hardware.telephony |
|
WRITE_APN_SETTINGS |
android.hardware.telephony |
|
WRITE_SMS |
android.hardware.telephony |
|
Wi-Fi | ACCESS_WIFI_STATE |
android.hardware.wifi |
CHANGE_WIFI_STATE |
android.hardware.wifi |
|
CHANGE_WIFI_MULTICAST_STATE |
android.hardware.wifi |