Today, we are introducing new features to improve device targeting for your Amazon Appstore apps and games on Android devices. Previously, targeting non-Amazon Android devices was done through compatibility settings in the binary’s AndroidManifest.xml file. Now, in addition to supporting industry standards for manifest-based device filtering, developers can use the Developer Portal to target the most popular Android devices including the Nexus 5, 7, 10, HTC One, Shield Tablet, Galaxy Nexus, Sony Experia Z, and the Motorola Droid Razr HD to name just a few. Developers can now look at the list of supported, excluded and unsupported devices to quickly see which devices are compatible with their app, and if their app manifest settings have filtered out any devices.

Implementing Device Targeting Is Easy

To begin, log in to the Amazon Appstore developer portal and choose your application. From there, under the Binary File(s) tab, click the Edit button at the bottom of the screen to navigate to the device support options

The Device Support summary shows the total number of devices that are Supported (compatible), Excluded (manually de-selected) and Unsupported (incompatible based on your manifest settings). To change your device support settings, click the Edit device support link to open the Device Support dialog.

Navigation Tips: the device summary drop-down at the top of the screen provides an overview of current device support. Clicking any of the links will filter the UI to show only the devices in the selected category. This is a quick and easy way of reviewing and editing your device support options.

You can also use the Find a device search box to quickly find devices by manufacturer or model. If you need to find a specific device by name, the search function will highlight devices that match your text. Simply start typing, and the dialog lists matching devices. You can choose to exclude or target devices directly from the search results.

We have included a few extra controls for developer targeting convenience. At the top of the Device Support dialog, you will find the setting Enable non-Amazon devices. If you want to limit your app’s availability to only a handful of non-Amazon devices, you can toggle-off this setting to initially exclude all devices before manually selecting devices for inclusion in to your compatibility list.

In the example below, you can see that a device has already been excluded based on the binary’s manifest. You can further limit the devices with known compatibility issues by manually de-selecting them in the Device Support dialog.

At the bottom of the Device Support dialog, there is a setting for All other Android devices. This control is enabled by default. It allows your app to be distributed to any other compatible Android devices not explicitly listed. It also allows your app to be made available for newly released (future) Android devices that are compatible with your manifest. Turning this setting off causes your app to only be distributed to selected devices.

Conclusion

With the introduction of manifest-based device targeting we are making it even simpler for developers to publish their apps in the Amazon Appstore. Developers can now reach more customers on compatible devices, and take steps to avoid delivering a poor customer experience on incompatible or poorly performing devices.

Links To Additional Resources

• Introduction to Device Targeting
• Publishing Android Apps to the Amazon Appstore
• Supported Filters on Amazon Appstore