Google has long struggled with developers who build awesome apps for Android, but who don’t optimize those apps for tablets. And to be completely honest, the fight for better tablet apps has been ongoing since before the days of Honeycomb. Apple’s tremendous success with the iPad has only intensified the pressure on Google.
What was the search giant in Mountain View to do?
Google decided to try and shame developers into optimizing their apps for tablets by slapping the label “Designed for phones” across any app in the Play Store that wasn’t up to Google’s standards. The only problem is, it looks like Google doesn’t always follow its own initiatives.
Google recently updated the stock Android camera app, so that every Android device that has it – including tablets – would now receive regular updates in the Play Store. Specifically, my 2013 Google Nexus 7 got the update automatically, but look what happens when I pull up the Play Store listing for the camera app:
Sigh.
