Google: Future Android Apps Must Be 64-bit and Support Updated APIs

With every version of Android, Google adds new features and security optimizations. Many of those won’t matter to users until developers get around to adding the proper support, though. Google is lighting a fire under devs to make sure future app releases are as safe and efficient as possible. Starting next year, developers will need to support more recent Android features, and in 2019 64-bit support will be mandatory.

The first big change for developers will come in the fall of 2018, aimed at making sure developers are taking advantage of updated APIs. In Android, developers target their apps by API level. For instance, Oreo is API level 26. Apps declare an API level to tell devices which API features they support. So, an app that is targeted at API 23 (Marshmallow) or higher will have granular permission control in the system. Apps that target Nougat tell the phone or tablet they don’t trust user-added certificates for secure connections. Those are just two of many examples.

Google plans to require that new apps target Oreo (API level 26) in August of 2018. Starting in November of 2018, the same requirement applies to updated for existing apps. Older apps that aren’t being updated anymore can still target old versions of the OS, but many of these apps end up being removed over time as they run afoul of new Play Store policies. Little by little, the Play Store will shift to supporting newer APIs. From 2019 onward, the target API level will advance along with new Android releases. Developers will always need to target OS versions at most one year old. You can still install these apps on older devices (of which there are many), but they will have support for all API features on newer ones.

The other big change comes in 2019. That’s when Google will require that new apps and updates to existing apps include 64-bit support. Most Android devices run on ARM-based chips. The ARMv8 instruction set architecture rolled out 64-bit hardware support in 2014, and now almost every new Android device can run 64-bit code (but only 40 percent of active devices). Android itself added 64-bit support with 5.0 Lollipop in 2014. Apps can still include 32-bit support after the 2019 deadline, but native 64-bit libraries must be included as well. This can result in much better performance.

Google also plans to begin adding “security metadata” to apps in the Play Store. Developers don’t need to make any changes themselves, but the metadata should help verify the app’s authenticity. This will happen in the next few months.

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