Google encourages developers to make their apps compatible with displays that have an 18:9 aspect ratio

New flagship Android smartphones on the way like the LG G6 and the Galaxy S8 and S8+, apps will have to adjust to handle the enormous screens and their unconventional display aspect ratios. The LG G6’s 5.7-inch display as an 18:9 aspect ratio, while the Galaxy S8’s 5.8 and 6.2-inch displays have an 18.5:9 display.

A reason for the new aspect ratio is the current design trend among leading smartphones to minimize bezels and maximize screen coverage. Many apps still have a maximum aspect ratio of 16:9, so when these apps are opened on the newer phones, black bars appear at the top and bottom to fill in the empty space.

With potentially millions of units of the smartphones being sold in the coming months, it is in Android developers’ best interest to modify their code to improve the user experience for these buyers, especially as Google is now encouraging app developers to optimize their apps to accommodate the new displays.

Fortunately, Google makes it sound like the fix is a relatively simple process. They say that Android app developers can declare an “android.max_aspect” element in the app’s “application” element to allow the app to support a greater maximum display aspect ratio.

Source(s)