Android MiniClient for TV is Released to the Play Store

[stuckless]

Play Store Links
SageTV MiniClient for TV

Amazon App Store
SageTV MiniClient

BinTray - (Side Loading)



From here on in, releases for the TV app will go through the Play Store (if it's approved).

NOTE: Google has suspended the Phone/Tablet for "impersonation", so, the Phone/Tablet versions will continue to be distributed via Bintray

[harrijay]

I just tried to install this to my nexus player which is running Android 6.0, but it says I do not have any devices which are compatible. any idea on what would be not allowing me to install this?

Thanks,
Jayson

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by harrijay

I just tried to install this to my nexus player which is running Android 6.0, but it says I do not have any devices which are compatible. any idea on what would be not allowing me to install this?

Thanks,
Jayson

Same here, but have a SHIELD.

[stuckless]

In my developer console it says,

This application is being reviewed for approval.

I'm wondering if it will show not available until Google actually approves it.

[stuckless]

So, it appears that my "app" is only compatible with 8 about ~12000 devices This is obviously not correct, but, Google doesn't actually tell me which features, etc, is causing the wide exclusion... so not it's basically up to me to play whack-a-mole with Google Play to see how I can get more devices included. Thanks Google... Job well done.

[jm9843]

Originally Posted by stuckless

So, it appears that my "app" is only compatible with 8 about ~12000 devices This is obviously not correct, but, Google doesn't actually tell me which features, etc, is causing the wide exclusion... so not it's basically up to me to play whack-a-mole with Google Play to see how I can get more devices included. Thanks Google... Job well done.

What about this in the android-tv manifest:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO"/>

This permission implies a feature requirement of android.hardware.microphone

In some cases, the permissions that you request through <uses-permission> can affect how your application is filtered by Google Play.

If you request a hardware-related permission — CAMERA, for example — Google Play assumes that your application requires the underlying hardware feature and filters the application from devices that do not offer it.

To control filtering, always explicitly declare hardware features in <uses-feature> elements, rather than relying on Google Play to "discover" the requirements in <uses-permission> elements. Then, if you want to disable filtering for a particular feature, you can add a android:required="false" attribute to the <uses-feature> declaration.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by jm9843

What about this in the android-tv manifest:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO"/>

This permission implies a feature requirement of android.hardware.microphone

Ironically the RECORD_AUDIO is what what Google TV template added (It's used by Google TV to do voice searches). I can certainly remove it, and re-submit... as I said... it's now whack a mole with google play... since god forbid they actually tell you "why" are you being exluded

I guess I know what I'll be doing next weekend

[jm9843]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Ironically the RECORD_AUDIO is what what Google TV template added (It's used by Google TV to do voice searches).

Yikes, I didn't even think of the voice search when I posted. I guess we live in a brave new world in which our TV-watching devices having a microphone is the default state of things.

In any event I realize that you are targeting 22, but they did begin recommending that Android TV apps targeting API Level 23 should remove RECORD_AUDIO permission.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by jm9843

Yikes, I didn't even think of the voice search when I posted. I guess we live in a brave new world in which our TV-watching devices having a microphone is the default state of things.

In any event I realize that you are targeting 22, but they did begin recommending that Android TV apps targeting API Level 23 should remove RECORD_AUDIO permission.

Thanks... I'll remove the RECORD_AUDIO since I'm not using it (Google added it for me).

I'm targeting 22, since the changes that google made in 23 prevents ffmpeg from working. The joying of working in Google's Android land mine development model.

Some days, I wonder why I put myself though the agony... It would be one thing if I developed mobile apps for a living (which I don't)

I tried to publish 2 other TV apps about a year ago... and I eventually gave up... I was hopeful that they had started to take this app thing seriously, a year later... I guess not. (It was a nice touch that I need to provide 2 "phone" images in addition to the 2+ tv images in order to complete the app entry )

Likely you are right in that the target of 22 with the RECORD_AUDIO will solve this... thanks for digging that up.

[ptzink]

FYI, the Google Play link is showing that the app is incompatible with all of my devices including a Shield TV and Nexus 5 phone.

[stuckless]

So, I just got this email from google...

Thanks for submitting your app for Android TV. We reviewed SageTV MiniClient, with package name sagex.miniclient.android.tv, and noticed some eligibility issues.

App status: Your app has not been accepted into Android TV. This does not affect your app’s status on Google Play.

Version Name: 1.0
Version code: 1
Current track: PRODUCTION
Eligibility issues:

Your app requires a Google TV uses-feature that prevents the app from being installed on Android TV devices. Please remove or set the following uses-feature as false.
<uses-feature android:name="com.google.android.tv" android:required="false"/>

I'm not 100% sure, but it sounds like that my app is using the feature com.google.android.tv (although I never set it explicitly) and they want to me set to that to "false", which, seems counter-intuitive to actually submitting a TV app... but I'll give it a try.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by stuckless

So, I just got this email from google...



I'm not 100% sure, but it sounds like that my app is using the feature com.google.android.tv (although I never set it explicitly) and they want to me set to that to "false", which, seems counter-intuitive to actually submitting a TV app... but I'll give it a try.

If I read this correctly, they are drawing a distinction between "Google TV" and "Android TV". I'm not an Android user or coder, but from what I recall, Android TV replaced Google TV. They must be saying that with the current flags, they think your app requires the older GoogleTV and is therefore not compatible with the newer AndroidTV.

[trallyus]

Originally Posted by Tiki

If I read this correctly, they are drawing a distinction between "Google TV" and "Android TV". I'm not an Android user or coder, but from what I recall, Android TV replaced Google TV. They must be saying that with the current flags, they think your app requires the older GoogleTV and is therefore not compatible with the newer AndroidTV.

It's not compatible with Google TV's at the moment either as I have 2 of those and a hisense vision android tv and says nothing is compatible

[Cooper]

Originally Posted by stuckless

So, I just got this email from google...



I'm not 100% sure, but it sounds like that my app is using the feature com.google.android.tv (although I never set it explicitly) and they want to me set to that to "false", which, seems counter-intuitive to actually submitting a TV app... but I'll give it a try.

I have a Sony TV with Android TV (5.x) built in and also a Nexus Player (6.1) and few tablets and phones and only device that showed compatible was my TV.

[Doctor Midnight]

I also received the message that the application is not compatible with any of my devices.

Attempting to force a sideload of the apk for RC5 (android-tv-debug-tv-1.0-RC5.apk) was successful, though Android refused to allow the application to be opened in all cases (and even hid it from the app drawer). Here's a screenshot of the package installer showing the "Open" option as grayed out.



I scaled it down as to not plaster a 1080x1920 here, but a full size screenshot is also available.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Doctor Midnight

I also received the message that the application is not compatible with any of my devices.

Attempting to force a sideload of the apk for RC5 (android-tv-debug-tv-1.0-RC5.apk) was successful, though Android refused to allow the application to be opened in all cases (and even hid it from the app drawer). Here's a screenshot of the package installer showing the "Open" option as grayed out.

I scaled it down as to not plaster a 1080x1920 here, but a full size screenshot is also available.

Is this a phone/tablet? I've stated a a couple times that RC3,4,5 is a TV only build... as I was preparing to get it ready for the play store. Even the filename has "tv" in it, twice A Phone/Tablet version is coming after I get this release finialized

[Doctor Midnight]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Is this a phone/tablet? I've stated a a couple times that RC3,4,5 is a TV only build... as I was preparing to get it ready for the play store. Even the filename has "tv" in it, twice A Phone/Tablet version is coming after I get this release finialized

I admittedly glossed over that detail

That might explain why it's incompatible with everything I have.

Sorry for the trouble!

[trallyus]

I am guessing you stopped supporting tvs with older oses Stuckless as I see now why RC5 and RC4 did not work on any of my TV's as I use Android 4.0 and up and not Requires Android 5.0 and up like your app requires now.

I will try RC3 and see if that still supports android 4.0 and up and see what happens

[ptzink]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Is this a phone/tablet? I've stated a a couple times that RC3,4,5 is a TV only build... as I was preparing to get it ready for the play store. Even the filename has "tv" in it, twice A Phone/Tablet version is coming after I get this release finialized

I had this issue on my Shield TV as well. I had to uninstall the RC4 to get RC5 to install correctly. Clean install of RC5 worked fine.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by trallyus

I am guessing you stopped supporting tvs with older oses Stuckless as I see now why RC5 and RC4 did not work on any of my TV's as I use Android 4.0 and up and not Requires Android 5.0 and up like your app requires now.

I will try RC3 and see if that still supports android 4.0 and up and see what happens

I think that all Android TV devices are running Android 5.0. To use the the leanback UI features of Android I needed to bump to 5.0. (I could get it working on a lesser version, but, I have to weigh the time/effort). If there is a enough demand for this, I'll certainly give it a shot. The other option is to install the tablet version which should be targeting 4.4 (I think). (tabet version not released yet).

Originally Posted by ptzink

I had this issue on my Shield TV as well. I had to uninstall the RC4 to get RC5 to install correctly. Clean install of RC5 worked fine.

That sounds correct. I thought I made note of that, since, the signatures changed, so if you didn't uninstall, you'd end up with 2 copies of the app. Likewise, once the playstore version gets released, you will want to uninstall the RC version and then install the playstore version.