Google confirms Pixel 7 series only supports 64-bit apps: Here’s how this impacts users

When some users found that the Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro threw error messages upon installation of some older apps like Flappy Bird, there wa speculation about Google ending support for 32-bit apps entirely. The company has now confirmed that the Pixel 7 series is the first to exclusively support 64-bit apps in the Android smartphone world, with a blog post. Sure, there’s the major snag about reduced app compatibility, but Google’s tried to justify its move ling a number of benefits such as reduced memory usage, improved performance, and better security. We’ll be getting to that in this article, but first, let’s figure out what 32-bit and 64-bit apps even are.
What exactly are 32-bit and 64-bit apps?
On your smartphone, every bit of data is represented and processed as numbers. The processing is handled the CPU, which stores these numbers in binary. The space these binary numbers take up is measured in bits. While a 32-bit OS can store 4,294,967,295 bits (or 4 GB), the capacity of a 64-bit OS is a lot higher.
Meanwhile, if an app is 64-bit, it means that it’s specifically designed to take advantage of the benefits of a 64-bit OS. It will also only run on a 64-bit OS, even as 32-bit apps can usually run on both 32 and 64-bit OS. But 32-bit apps cannot take advantage of a 64-bit OS like Android and are therefore being phased out.
Google notes in its blog post: “Thanks to the efforts and collaboration of the entire Android community, our ecosystem is ready. Transitioning Android devices to 64-bit-only required many changes across the platform, tooling, Play, and, of course, your apps. We started introducing 64-bit support in 2014, announcing policy changes in 2017 and requiring support for Google Play apps starting 2019.”
The Google Pixel 7 series is hastening up the process killing support for such apps entirely. But what exactly are these benefits that Google’s trying so hard to take advantage of? The company itself has led them in its blog post:
Benefits of switching to 64-bit apps
Faster processing and improved security
64-bit apps are designed to take advantage of 64-bit processors and 64-bit operating systems, and therefore have access to extra regers and instructions that aren’t available to 32-bit apps. This delivers a 25 per cent improvement in CPU performance, claims Google, adding that the additional address space helps improve security.
RAM savings
Dropping support for 32-bit code also saves up to 150MB of RAM, according to Google. This is negligible when the Pixel 7 series’ 8GB to 12GB of RAM is put into perspective, but is a welcome gain nonetheless. Google says that “these memory savings result in fewer out-of-memory conditions meaning less jank and fewer background app kills.”
Faster OS updates for vendors
64-bit-only devices are a lot easier to test apparently, according to the company. Vendors can update devices faster and more easily, claims the company.
Not all devices support 64-bit apps right now
The search engine giant has clarified that it isn’t abandoning support for 32-bit apps entirely, and will continue supporting those for budget phones, Wear OS watches, and Android TVs. These devices are yet to jump onto the 64-bit bandwagon and it’s essential that the development of 32-bit apps for them continues. Google says that it will continue serving 32-bit apps to 32-bit-only devices, and is encouraging developers to keep up 32-bit support for them.
What about Apple?
Apple has a headstart in the race toward 64-bit exclusivity and has already dropped support for 32-bit apps with iOS 10, which was released in 2016. The OS was the last version of iOS to run 32-bit apps. From iOS 11 onwards, any 32-bit app installed on the system simply fails to launch. A similar case is seen with Macs, where 32-bit support was dropped with the release of macOS Catalina in 2019.