TIER 3 — Large screen ready
Configuration is a combination of device state and system state. Device state includes screen orientation, display size, folded or unfolded state of a foldable device, external keyboard availability, attached displays. System state includes display modes, such as multi-window and multi-display, and user-defined settings, such as font size and locale.
Configuration changes are device or system state changes—a rotated device, resized app window, unfolded device, connected peripheral, or updated user setting.
Large screen devices undergo all the same configuration changes as small screen phones, but large screens also have unique configuration changes such as:
- Device folding and unfolding
- Resizing of free-form windows in multi-window mode
Activity recreation
Android handles configuration changes for apps by destroying and recreating the activity that's running when the configuration change occurs. Android recreates the activity with settings and resources that accommodate the new configuration.
Design your app with responsive/adaptive layouts that support a wide variety of screen and app window sizes and aspect ratios, and the Android framework's configuration handling will provide the optimal presentation of your app on large and small screens.
Do-it-yourself configuration management
For special cases, such as app-specific optimizations, enable your app to handle configuration changes rather than letting Android destroy and recreate your app's activities.
Specify the configuration changes your app handles by setting the android:configChanges attribute of the <activity> element in your app manifest.
For example, enable your app to handle multi-window configuration changes:
<activity
android:name=".MyActivity"
android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize|smallestScreenSize|screenLayout" />
State management
Whether Android handles a configuration change for you or you do it yourself, your app must maintain context and state. After a configuration change, users should be able to resume interaction with your app without a disruption in continuity and without losing data, for example, when a configuration change happens during media playback or data entry, respectively.
Next steps
For more information about how to handle configuration changes and maintain app continuity, see the following developer guides: