Adaptive Design: Moving Beyond Mobile-Only Apps
Article Summary
Fahd Imtiaz from Google's Android team reveals a stark reality: tablet and foldable users spend 9-14x more on apps than phone-only users. The mobile-only era is officially over.
Android's ecosystem has exploded beyond phones to over 500 million active devices including foldables, tablets, XR, and Chromebooks. Google spent 2025 releasing tools to make adaptive design the default approach, with three major updates reshaping how developers build for multiple form factors.
Key Takeaways
- Android 16 forces apps to support all orientations on 600dp+ displays
- WindowManager 1.5.0 adds Large and Extra-large breakpoints for desktop-scale interfaces
- Jetpack Navigation 3 enables multi-pane layouts without conflicting back stacks
- Android 17 will mandate adaptive behavior with no opt-out available
Critical Insight
Google is standardizing adaptive design across Android with mandatory resizability, new window size classes for desktop-scale screens, and navigation tools built specifically for multi-pane layouts.
