Google Play to Evaluate Foldable Apps and Introduce AI Adaptation Tools

Google announced that starting next year, the Google Play Store will evaluate apps and games based on their performance on foldable devices while rewarding well-adapted products with better visibility. Additionally, Google updated its developer tools with a new 'Compose adaptive skill' to let AI programming agents automatically refactor mobile apps for various screen sizes. This initiative tackles the long-standing pain point of poor app adaptation on Android foldables and large screens by shifting from voluntary optimization to mandatory incentives and AI-driven automation. It significantly reduces the development overhead required to support fragmented form factors across mobile, tablet, and desktop environments. The new Compose adaptive skill can automatically incorporate desktop features like keyboard shortcuts, custom cursors, and hover effects, while also adjusting layouts for table-top modes on foldables. Underlying frameworks are also being updated, including Navigation 3 version 1.2 and Compose 1.13, which provides stable Grid and Flexbox layouts.