In recent months, Android has added a 16 kb page size that will increase performance, and Google is now presentation A support requirement for applications in the Play Store.
Historically, Android has been “built and optimized to operate with a 4 kb page size”.
In most CPUs, dedicated equipment called Units Management Memory Units (MMUS) translates addresses of what a program uses in a physical location in memory. This translation is based on the size of a page. Whenever a program needs more memory, the operating system must get involved and fill in a “page table” input, by attributing this piece of memory to a process. When the size of the page is 4 times larger, there is 4 times less accounting. Thus, the system can spend more time ensuring that your videos looks great, games play well and that applications go smoothly and less time to fill the documents in the low level operating system.
As the peripheral OEM add more RAM “to optimize performance”, they will adopt these greatest page sizes. Android 15 added the system support – by refactoring the operating system to be agentic of page size – for this “increased size of the page, ensuring that your application can work on these evolving devices and benefit from associated performance gains”. This is supported and available to test the Pixel 8 and Pixel 9 series. It results in performance improvements like:
- Faster: See improvements ranging from 3% to 30% for various applications.
- Use of improved battery: Experience an average gain of 4.5%.
- The faster camera begins: Launch the camera 4.5% to 6.6% faster.
- Fast system boot-ups: Start Android devices about 8% faster.
From November 1, 2025, Google Play will require that those “all new applications and updates of existing” which target Android 15+ support 16 KB page sizes.
Without recompilation to support 16 pages KB, your application may not work properly on these devices when they become more widely available in future versions of Android.
Google says that “substantial number of applications are already compatible, so your application can already operate transparently with this requirement”. The company provides minimum adjustments for other applications:
- Applications without native code must be compatible without any modification.
- Applications using libraries or SDKs containing native code may need to update them to a compatible version.
- Applications with native code may need Recompile with a more recent tool chain And check any code with incompatible management of low level memory.
Developers can check the management of the size of the memory page in the reading console:
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