Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
- The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro now only support 64-bit apps.
- The Pixel 7 series is now the first Android phone to be 64-bit-only.
- This should provide a number of improvements like reduced memory usage and more security.
For years, Google has been working on 64-bit support, officially announcing policy changes back in 2017. Now the company has fully implemented that philosophy in its newest flagship phones — the Pixel 7 series.
In a blog post on its developer’s site, the Mountain View-based organization revealed some interesting news about its Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro handsets. According to Google, the recently released devices are now the first-ever 64-bit-only Android phones.
Google states that in order to achieve this feat, it was necessary to make a variety of changes “across the platform, tooling, [Google] Play, and, of course, your apps.”
You may be thinking, “this all sounds good and everything, but what does this mean for me?”
What Google is basically saying is your phone is going to see a number of improvements. As the company points out, 64-bit apps run faster than 32-bit apps because they have access to extra registers and instructions. Google also says, “newer CPUs deliver up to 25% better performance when running 64-bit code.”
In addition to performance gains, 64-bit apps allow for better security. With the extra address space, security features, like address space layout randomization (ASLR), can be more effective and whatever is left over can be used to protect control flow integrity, Google claims.
Finally, the move to 64-bit should help you free up some space. Google says that removing support for 32-bit apps could open up as much as 15oMB of RAM.
Since the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are now exclusively 64-bit phones, this of course means the phones can no longer run the 32-bit versions of your apps.
