Android Go app test

Question

I want to test how my app behaves on Android Go.

According to this post: https://developer.android.com/develop/quality-guidelines/building-for-billions-device-capacity.html#androidgo

I understand that the following conditions need to be set:

• targetSdkVersion >= 26
• Adding <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.ram.low" android:required="true"> to the app menifest.
• RAM size ≤1GB
• The on-device app size should be smaller than 40MB (mine is less then 20MB).

How can I tell if my app runs in Android Go mode or not?

I've created an emulator with the followoing configurations:

Name: Andorid_go_API_27

CPU/ABI: Google APIs Intel Atom (x86)

Path: C:\Users\rotem.matityahu.android\avd\Andorid_go_API_27.avd

Target: google_apis [Google APIs] (API level 27)

Skin: 1080x1920

SD Card: 100 MiB

hw.dPad: no

hw.lcd.height: 1920

runtime.network.speed: full

hw.accelerometer: yes

hw.device.name: New Device 1

vm.heapSize: 256

skin.dynamic: yes

hw.device.manufacturer: User

hw.lcd.width: 1080

hw.gps: yes

hw.initialOrientation: Portrait

skin.path.backup: _no_skin

image.androidVersion.api: 27

hw.audioInput: yes

image.sysdir.1: system-images\android-27\google_apis\x86\

tag.id: google_apis

showDeviceFrame: no

hw.camera.back: emulated

hw.mainKeys: no

AvdId: Andorid_go_API_27

hw.camera.front: emulated

hw.lcd.density: 480

avd.ini.displayname: Andorid go API 27

hw.gpu.mode: auto

hw.device.hash2: MD5:1c925b9117dd9f33c5128dac289a0d68

hw.ramSize: 512

hw.trackBall: no

PlayStore.enabled: false

fastboot.forceColdBoot: no

hw.battery: yes

hw.cpu.ncore: 2

hw.sdCard: no

tag.display: Google APIs

runtime.network.latency: none

hw.keyboard: yes

hw.sensors.proximity: yes

disk.dataPartition.size: 800M

hw.sensors.orientation: yes

avd.ini.encoding: UTF-8

hw.gpu.enabled: yes

Answer 1

If you try to navigate to your app on the Play Store with an AndroidGo device or if you try to download it to a device with your same account and which is an AndroidGo device you should see a compatibility or incompatibility message

The install button should be disabled if not compatible and there should be details provided in "About this app ->" screen at the bottom

Answer 2

Android Oreo (Go edition) seems to be the special release of Android Oreo (8.1) for low spec devices.

Unfortunately there is no way to check the compatibility for now. For example, no emulator with Go edition is available. You can only follow the guidelines for now.

Answer 3

From this video from Google you can understand that need to setup your SDK target to 28. This will make you app for Android Go.

One more resource with important informations for build focusing in Go Edition: How to optimize your app for Android (Go edition)