why does my phonegap build app not work for Android tablets?

Question

I build a Mobile app using HTML5, Javascript and CSS3 using the PhoneGap API. I used the Phonegap Build to generate my .apk release file. I was expecting my apk to run on phones as well as tablets since i was using jquery mobile. However when i submit my app to google play store i get the following message

Design your app for tablets

Your Production APK needs to meet the following criteria:

The minimum Android version and target Android version need to support tablets (check targetSdkVersion and minSdkVersion)

I was expecting the phone gap build to do that ?

UPDATE:

I also added the below tags to my index.html page but it would still display the same message help ?

  <preference name="android-minSdkVersion" value="7" />
  <preference name="android-maxSdkVersion" value="19" />
  <preference name="android-targetSdkVersion" value="19" /> 

Answer 1

You're making mistake on your android manifest:

1. Your android min version is set to 7, but Initial support for tablets was added in Android 3.0 (API level 11). So it must be 11 or higher.
2. Under uses-feature and uses-permission, you're requiring some hardware features that maybe not available on some tablet like front camera or telephony. For all this kind of features, you should add a new parameter android:required="false"

Here is the soure with more details from android developper website.

http://developer.android.com/distribute/googleplay/quality/tablet.html#android-versions http://developer.android.com/distribute/googleplay/quality/tablet.html#hardware-requirements

Answer 2

I also get the message in Google Play Developer under "Optimization Tips": "Design your app for tablets...Show details... The minimum Android version and target Android version need to support tablets (check targetSdkVersion and minSdkVersion)."

So I added to the PhoneGap Build config.xml file:

<preference name="android-minSdkVersion" value="11" /> 
<preference name="android-targetSdkVersion" value="14" />

because that is what is recommended at http://developer.android.com/distribute/essentials/quality/tablets.html#android-versions

Uploaded the new apk to the Google Play store and it says that the new version supports 1200 less devices and I still get the same message about "The minimum Android version and target Android version need to support tablets (check targetSdkVersion and minSdkVersion)."

It seems the app is better off without adding the version lines to config.xml.

Answer 3

I also get the message in Google Play Developer under "Optimization Tips": "Design your app for tablets...Show details... The minimum Android version and target Android version need to support tablets (check targetSdkVersion and minSdkVersion)."

So I added to the PhoneGap Build config.xml file:

<preference name="android-minSdkVersion" value="11" /> 
<preference name="android-targetSdkVersion" value="14" />

because that is what is recommended at http://developer.android.com/distribute/essentials/quality/tablets.html#android-versions

Uploaded the new apk to the Google Play store and it says that the new version supports 1200 less devices and I still get the same message about "The minimum Android version and target Android version need to support tablets (check targetSdkVersion and minSdkVersion)."

It seems the app is better off without adding the version lines to config.xml.

Update

There is a comment at http://unitycoder.com/blog/2014/03/18/your-apk-does-not-seem-to-be-designed-for-tablets/ that indicates that if you upload screenshots for tablets and there is too much whitespace in the screenshot then that is probably the reason for Google's message about your app not being optimized for tablets.