Google has released data to help developers to prepare for the upcoming launch of Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) so that apps can be properly readied for the latest Android developments.
Google’s official Android developer website’s lead tech writer, Scott Main, wrote in a blog post that the ICS design is meant for running on any screen size from smartphones to tablets with larger screens.
That said, apps that have been created to run under Android 3.0 Honeycomb are designed to be “forward compatible”, which means that they will also be able to run on devices that have ICS, no matter if they are a smartphone or a tablet device.
Therefore, if an app was designed specifically to be run on tablets that are based on Honeycomb, their developers will be required to tweak their Android packages (APKs) so that they will either support or prevent the installation of those apps on devices with smaller screens.
Main’s blog post also suggested some strategies for developers of tablet apps so that they can make certain that their Action Bar widget design will still function on smaller devices.
Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Google, has already revealed, earlier in September, that the new version of Android will become available at some point in either October or November 2011.
ICS will represent the very first attempt made by Google to fuse the Honeycomb and Gingerbread elements into one mobile OS that will function on both smartphone and tablets. Android developers will soon be receiving new open-source APIs, as well as the framework that will be necessary to assist them in creating optimized apps that can function on several kinds of devices.
