With Android’s position improving as a tablet OS, while Windows 8 and iPad also loom over its future, Google is all set to settle its only remaining quirk i.e. a lack of good quality tablet apps in the ecosystem. It has just recently published a tablet app quality checklist with a list of ten items that suggest developers on how to better optimize their apps for the tablet. Here is an overview of the list :
- Test for Core App Quality
- Optimize your layouts for larger screens
- Take advantage of extra screen area available on tablets
- Use icons and other assets that are designed for tablet screens
- Adjust font sizes and touch targets for tablet screens
- Adjust sizes of home screen widgets for tablet screens
- Offer the app’s full feature set for tablet users
- Don’t require hardware features that might not be available on tablets.
- Declare support for tablet screen configurations
- Follow the best practices for publishing on Google Play.
Each section of the post explains each of these points in detail and proves to be a good reference for developers. The accompanying blog post announces that they will be consistently sharing tips and advice on the Google Plus page for Android developers. They will be discussing case studies and success stories on the YouTube channel while also publishing spotlight developer stories on their website. Tablet optimized apps are also expected to be featured more often on the Play Store. The whole exercise has to be seen as a continuing effort of Google to enhance its Play Store and improve the
overall quality of its Android apps. Hopefully we will see developers paying heed to these new measures and providing a better overall experience for tablet users on Android who have largely been ignored before.
