• 13 February 2026 Posted by Miguel Montemayor, Developer Relations Engineer, Android With the release of Android 16 in 2025, we shared our vision for a device ecosystem where apps adapt seamlessly to any screen-whether it’s a phone, foldable, tablet, desktop, car display, or XR. • Users expect their apps to work everywhere. • Whether multitasking on a tablet, unfolding a device to read comfortably, or running apps in a desktop windowing environment, users expect the UI to fill the available display space and adapt to the device posture. • We introduced significant changes to orientation and resizability APIs to facilitate adaptive behavior, while providing a temporary opt-out to help you make the transition. • We’ve already seen many developers successfully adapt to this transition when targeting API level 36. • Now with the release of the Android 17 Beta, we’re moving to the next phase of our adaptive roadmap: Android 17 (API level 37) removes the developer opt-out for orientation and resizability restrictions on large screen devices (sw > 600 dp).

Article Summaries:

  • Android 17 (API level 37) removes the developer opt‑out that was introduced in Android 16 for orientation and resizability on large‑screen devices (sw ≥ 600 dp). Apps that target Android 17 must now support both portrait and landscape layouts across all aspect ratios, including resizable windows, and cannot restrict orientation or aspect ratio via manifest attributes or runtime APIs. The changes apply only to non‑game apps on large screens; smaller screens and games remain unaffected. Google recommends testing with Android 17 Beta 1 on Pixel Tablet and Pixel Fold emulators and using the UNIVERSAL_RESIZABLE_BY_DEFAULT flag or the new UI audit tools to ensure adaptive behavior.

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