For all the things Google claims to be transparent about, apps that have been optimized for a tablet's wider screen size haven't been one of them. Since the first version of Android to support tablets hit the scene back in 2011, it's been a bit of a doozy trying to pick out the apps that were specially made for larger devices.
Thankfully, Google has heard the pleas of its faithful user base and updated the Google Play Store to showcase tablet-optimized apps. Now, when you look for apps on your tablet device, you'll specifically see applications that were actually made for your bigger screen.
The Google Play Store will specifically navigate you to apps made for your tablet.
If you happen to stumble upon applications that were only optimized for the phone, you'll see a black bar above the app's main page warning you of such. And, when you venture into the top categories in the Google Play store, you can select whether or not you want to see all apps or those specifically designed for tablets.
Google will warn you if you're looking at an app that's made for your phone on a tablet device (left), and you can tell if the app is made for a tablet from the screenshots in the app's description (right).
Behind the scenes, Google is making a big push to get developers to market their apps as tablet optimized. Whether it's a sign of more tablets to come (like a refreshed Nexus 10) or Google just making sure things remain user friendly remains to be seen. We're just glad to know which app is the right app to download.
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