How to pass Google Play Store eligibility for Android TV if app uses web browser links?

Question

So I have been submitting app to Google Play and wanting it released for TVs as well. I had to add multiple things into the apk like banner, Leanback launcher etc. The app works perfectly on Android TV but I keep getting this Android TV eligibility issue email all the time:

App links to or depends on web browser Your app contains links to web content, however, Android TV does not support any web browsing content. Please refer to our documentation for details.

And as you can see from documentation :

TV-WB For web content, the app uses WebView components and does not attempt to launch a web browser app.

Now while it is true that my app does open web browser links when clicking on certain buttons, this functionality checks for browser presence and if no browser is installed, it will not do anything.

What is the correct way to address this issue? I want to keep Web browser links for phones and tablets, just remove it for TVs. Should I use simple if condition?

Thanks for help!

Answer 1

You've got 2 options:

1. Use multi-apk to publish one TV app, and one other devices app. This is probably the most common things apps do. Take the web code out of your TV app. if you put the code behind an if statement which is always true for TV builds proguard should strip it out.
2. Just stick your web browsing code behind an if statement, so it doesn't try to follow the links on a TV.

Option 1 gives you more flexibility in future to do things like branch the functionality of your TV and main apps. It also allows each APK to be smaller as the main app doesn't have any of the TV specific code, and vice-versa. However, it is a bit more work to co-ordinate the release.