Screen resolution fix on Android

Important news for Android users: I have a fix for the resolution problems that you have been experiencing on recent devices. This is a screenshot from my Samsung Galaxy S demonstrating the problem:

Screenshot showing the resolution problem

It looks fairly okay here because of the large size, but the physical size of the screen is smaller. Still, it is readable, and therefore I have not focused on this issue earlier. But after having seen how it looks on a Galaxy S3, there was a sense of urgency to change it. Because on the latest devices, resolution has been increased and it is just unreadable – which makes the app useless.

Now, the search for a solution gave me some headache. Android devices come in many resolutions, and I understand that some “resolution-independent” solution should be found. It is available for Android developers by using density-independent pixels, but my attempts with these were unsuccessful. Besides, it would also mean that I would have to provide images for all different resolutions. Not ideal..

Fortunately, there is another option described on the Appcelerator Developer Blog – add this line to the Android manifest:

<supports-screens android:anyDensity=”false”/>

I tried, repeatedly, without success. That means, I did what the blog suggested, adding this code in the tiapp.xml file. In the end, I decided to remove it there, and add it in the separate (custom) AndroidManifest.xml file that I am still using from previous updates. Now it worked! Here is a screenshot of what the new version will look like:

New layout with improved font and image sizes

This is how it has been looking on the emulator (hence the “normal” screenshots you have been seeing previously).. Much better, isn’t it! :-)

This Android issue, together with the screen size update for the iPhone 5, are my two reasons to bring an update soon. This will include 18 new scores, and a new decision support item. Stay tuned…

Some more screenshots of what the current layout looks like
(note: screenshots are larger than your device):

And some screenshots of what the new layout will look like
(note: screenshots are larger than your device):