Building Quality Tablet Apps

Posted by Reto Meier, Android Developer Relations Tech Lead

With the release of Nexus 7 earlier this year, we shared some tips on how you can get your apps ready for a new wave of Android tablets. With the holiday season now approaching, we’re creating even more ways for great tablet apps to be featured in Google Play - including a series of new app collections that highlight great apps specifically for tablet users.

To help you take advantage of the opportunity provided by the growing tablet market, we’ve put together this Tablet App Quality Checklist to make it easier for you to ensure your app meets the expectations of tablet users.

The checklist includes a number of key focus areas for building apps that are a great experience on tablets, including:

• Optimizing your layouts for larger screens
• Taking advantage of extra screen area available on tablets
• Using Icons and other assets that are designed for tablet screens

Each focus area comprises several smaller tasks or best practices. As you move through the checklist, you'll find links to support resources that can help you address the topics raised in each task.

The benefits of building an app that works great on tablets is evident in the experiences of Mint.com, Tiny Co, and Instapaper who reported increased user engagement, better monetization, and more downloads from tablet users. You can find out more about their experience in these developer case studies.

The Tablet Quality Checklist is a great place to get started, but it’s just the beginning. We’ll be sharing more tablet development tips every day this week on +Android Developers. In Android Developers Live, Tuesday’s Android Design in Action broadcast will focus on optimizing user experience for tablets, on Thursday we’ll be interviewing our tablet case studies during Developers Strike Back, and on Friday’s live YouTube broadcasts of The App Clinic and Friday Games Review will be reviewing apps and games on Android tablets.

What are your best tips for building great
tablet apps?

Join the discussion on
+Android Developers