Large screen app quality

App fills the available display area—the entire screen or, in multi-window mode, the app window. App is not letterboxed; it does not run in compatibility mode.

App handles configuration changes and retains or restores its state as the device goes through configuration changes such as device rotation, folding and unfolding, and window resizing in split‑screen and desktop windowing modes, for example:

• Scroll position of scrollable fields is maintained
• Text typed into text fields is retained and the keyboard state is restored
• Media playback resumes where it left off when the configuration change was initiated

App is fully functional in multi-window mode. See Support multi-window mode.

Note: Unity apps should be on Unity Long Term Support (LTS) version 2019 or later. See Multi-window mode verification.

App supports basic mouse or trackpad interactions:

• Click: Any clickable element, including buttons, drop‑down menus, text entry fields, and navigation icons
• Select: Any selectable element, including radio buttons, checkboxes, and text (by swiping or double clicking)
• Scroll: Vertically and horizontally in scrollable elements such as lists and pickers

App provides basic support for stylus‑equipped tablets, foldables, and ChromeOS devices. The stylus can be used to select and manipulate UI elements, including scrolling through lists, pickers, and other scrollable content.

See Stylus in Input compatibility on large screens.

Note: Basic stylus input is the same as touch input, which is fully supported by Android. All apps support basic stylus input with no special development required.

On Android 14 (API level 34) and higher, users can write and edit text in text input fields using a stylus. On ChromeOS M114 and higher, a stylus can be used to write and edit text in text input fields in WebView components.

Note: On Android 14 and higher, EditText components support input using a stylus by default; no special development is required. On ChromeOS M114 and higher, WebView supports stylus input in text fields by default.

App has responsive and adaptive layouts designed for large screens. All layouts are responsive (see Migrate your UI to responsive layouts). Implementation of adaptive layouts is determined by window size classes.

The app UI can include the following:

• Leading‑edge navigation rails that expand on larger window sizes into full navigation panels
• Grid layouts that scale the number of columns to accommodate window size changes
• Columns of text on large screens
• Trailing‑edge panels that are open by default on laptop and desktop screen sizes; closed, on smaller screens

Create two-pane layouts, where appropriate, to take advantage of the large screen space. See Canonical layouts.

Activity embedding enables activity-based apps to create multi‑pane layouts by displaying activities side by side.

Modals, options menus, and other secondary elements are properly formatted on all screen types and device states, for example:

• Bottom sheets are not full width on large screens. (Apply a maximum width to avoid stretching.) See Behavior in Sheets: bottom.
• Buttons are not full width on large screens. See Behavior in Buttons.
• Text fields and boxes do not stretch to full width on large screens. See Behavior in Text fields.
• Small edit menus or modals do not cover the entire screen and maintain context for the user as much as possible. See Menus.
• Options menus appear next to the item the user selected. See the "Contextual menu" topic in Menus.
• Navigation rails replace navigation bars for better ergonomics. Rails can also complement other navigation components, such as navigation bars. See Navigation rail.
• Navigation drawers are updated to the latest material component. See Navigation drawer.
• Dialog boxes are updated to the latest material component. See Dialogs.
• Images are displayed at a proper resolution and are not stretched or cropped.

App supports various multitasking scenarios, for example:

• Picture-in-picture mode: App is able to enter and exit picture-in-picture mode in portrait and landscape orientations, with the device folded and unfolded, and in multi-window mode. See Picture-in-picture (PiP) support.
• Multi-window mode: App can open another application in a separate window from a deep link; for example, a contact management app opens a link to an email message which is displayed in an email app in a new window. See FLAG_ACTIVITY_LAUNCH_ADJACENT.
• Attachments: Messaging apps can open attachments (such as videos) in a separate window.

App supports all foldable postures and related use cases:

• Tabletop posture — Video calling and video or audio playback.
• Book posture — Reading lengthy text content.
• Dual display — Front and back screen preview for camera apps. Support for dual-screen devices.

App provides enhanced stylus support, including:

• Low latency and motion prediction to improve responsiveness
• Pressure sensitivity for drawing strokes of varying width
• Tilt detection for creating shading strokes
• Palm and finger rejection to prevent stray marks

App displays customized cursors to indicate how and when users can interact with UI elements and content, for example:

• System cursors provided by the Android framework
  • I-beam for text
  • Resize handles at resizable layer edges
  • Processing spinners
• Specialty cursors that you provide
  • Crosshairs when hovering over targets in games
  • A magnifying glass when hovering over zoomable content
  • Tools in drawing or illustration apps

Resize the app window in multi-window mode, including split-screen and desktop windowing modes. On ChromeOS devices, minimize and restore the app window, maximize and restore the app window. Verify that the app assumes the proper orientation and maintains state in all window sizes.

Note: Test on a large screen device (sw >= 600dp) running Android 12 (API level 31) or higher to ensure the device supports the following:

• All device orientations regardless of orientation restrictions set with the android:screenOrientation app manifest element
• Multi-window mode, even for apps that have specified android:resizeableActivity="false" in the app manifest

From each app screen that has scrollable content, continuous playback content, or text entry fields, do the following:

• Scrollable content: Scroll the content
• Playback content: Begin playback
• Text entry fields: Enter text in multiple fields

Rotate the device between landscape and portrait orientations, fold and unfold the device (if applicable), span and unspan your app across two screens (if you have a dual-screen device) and resize the app window in multi-window mode. Minimize and restore the app window on ChromeOS devices; maximize and restore the app window. Verify the following:

• Scrollable content: The scroll position remains the same
• Playback content: Playback resumes where it left off when the configuration change was initiated
• Text entry fields: Previously entered text is retained in input fields

Open the app in multi-window mode. Check whether the app is fully functional in all window sizes, device orientations, and foldable device states. Resize the app window in each orientation. For foldable devices, fold and unfold the device in each orientation.

Unity apps

Open an app other than your Unity app. Go to the Recents screen. Select the app icon and put the app in split-screen mode. Open your Unity app, which should launch in split-screen mode beside or below the first app. Go to the Home screen to hide the pair of apps. Go to the Recents screen. Select the split-screen app pair that includes your Unity app. Verify that the Unity app resumes its activity and the app's layout in the split-screen window is correct with all UI elements accessible.

For each app screen, connect a mouse and trackpad to the device. Perform basic mouse and trackpad interactions:

• Click all clickable elements such as buttons, drop‑down menus, and text entry fields.
• Select radio buttons and checkboxes. Select text by swiping and double clicking.
• Scroll vertically and horizontally (if applicable) through lists, pickers, and so forth

Run the app on devices that have a wide variety of screen sizes, including phones, foldable phones, small and large tablets, and ChromeOS devices. Run the app in multi-window mode on the devices.

Verify that the app layout responds and adapts to different screen and window sizes. Check whether the app expands and contracts navigation rails, scales the number of columns in grid layouts, flows text into columns, and so forth. Observe whether UI elements are formatted for both aesthetics and function.

For apps using activity embedding, test whether activities are displayed side by side on large screens, stacked on small screens.

Interact with the app using a stylus as follows:

• As you draw, observe the latency between the current stylus position and the last rendered stroke.
• Draw with varying amounts of stylus pressure. Check whether the width of the strokes changes as the pressure changes. More pressure should produce thicker strokes.
• Tilt the stylus as you draw; shading strokes should be produced. The more the stylus is tilted, the wider and lighter the shading strokes should be.
• Let your fingers and palm touch the screen as you draw. The finger and palm touches should not produce marks.

Interact with the app using a mouse and trackpad. Verify that custom cursors appear where appropriate, for example:

• I-beam for text entry fields
• Resize handles at resizable layer edges
• Spinners when app is performing long-running tasks