Freetype font kerning on Android not working

Issue details

Freetype font kerning works just fine when I run my code as desktop app, I can set kerning to true or false.

But on android device setting kerning true of false makes no difference, kerning is not there either way.

Tested with 3 different phones with different Android versions, issue is always present.

Below is an example. I downloaded the latest libGDX setup App and added some freetype font words to a newly generated default project.

The font I used is OpenSans-Bold.ttf, downloaded from Google Fonts, but I have tried other fonts too.

Reproduction steps/code

package com.mygdx.game;

import com.badlogic.gdx.ApplicationAdapter;
import com.badlogic.gdx.Gdx;
import com.badlogic.gdx.graphics.Color;
import com.badlogic.gdx.graphics.GL20;
import com.badlogic.gdx.graphics.Texture;
import com.badlogic.gdx.graphics.g2d.BitmapFont;
import com.badlogic.gdx.graphics.g2d.SpriteBatch;
import com.badlogic.gdx.graphics.g2d.freetype.FreeTypeFontGenerator;

public class MyGdxGame extends ApplicationAdapter {
	SpriteBatch batch;
	Texture img;
	BitmapFont font;

	@Override
	public void create () {

		FreeTypeFontGenerator generator = new FreeTypeFontGenerator(Gdx.files.internal("OpenSans-Bold.ttf"));
		FreeTypeFontGenerator.FreeTypeFontParameter parameter = new FreeTypeFontGenerator.FreeTypeFontParameter();
		parameter.size = 50;
		parameter.color = Color.WHITE;

		parameter.kerning = true;

		font = generator.generateFont(parameter); // font size 12 pixels
		generator.dispose(); // don't forget to dispose to avoid memory leaks!

		batch = new SpriteBatch();
		img = new Texture("badlogic.jpg");
	}

	@Override
	public void render () {
		Gdx.gl.glClearColor(1, 0, 0, 1);
		Gdx.gl.glClear(GL20.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
		batch.begin();
		batch.draw(img, 0, 0);

		font.draw(batch, "START Yawn", 50, 460);

		batch.end();
	}
	
	@Override
	public void dispose () {
		batch.dispose();
		img.dispose();
	}
}

Version of LibGDX and/or relevant dependencies

• libGDX 1.9.8
• Freetype extension checked in libGDX setup app

Please select the affected platforms

• Android

Start with the FreeTypeFontGenerator usage in the create() entry point and reproduce the sample on desktop and Android using OpenSans-Bold.ttf. Compare the generated font behavior with parameter.kerning set to true and false, then trace the Android font-generation path. Done means kerning behavior is consistent or the Android limitation is documented and covered by an appropriate regression test.