Get ready to upgrade your app's performance as Android embraces 16 KB memory page sizes
Android’s transition to 16 KB Page size
Posted by Mayank Jain – Product Manager and Jomo Fisher – Software Engineer
Traditionally, Android has operated with the 4 KB memory page size. However many ARM CPUs (the most common processors for Android phones) support the larger 16 KB page size, offering improved performance gains. With Android 15, the Android operating system is page-size-agnostic, allowing devices to run efficiently with either 4 KB or 16 KB page size.
Starting November 1st, 2025, all new apps and app updates that use native C/C++ code targeting Android 15+ devices submitted to Google Play must support 16 KB page sizes. This is a crucial step towards ensuring your app delivers the best possible performance on the latest Android hardware. Apps without native C/C++ code or dependencies, that just use the Kotlin and Java programming languages, are already compatible, but if you're using native code, now is the time to act.
This transition to larger 16 KB page sizes translates directly into a better user experience. Devices configured with 16 KB page size can see an overall performance boost of 5-10%. This means faster app launch times (up to 30% for some apps, 3.16% on average), improved battery usage (4.56% reduction in power draw), quicker camera starts (4.48-6.60% faster), and even speedier system boot-ups (around 0.8 seconds faster). While there is a marginal increase in memory use, a faster reclaim path is worth it.
The native code challenge – and how Android Studio equips you
If your app uses native C/C++ code from the Android NDK or relies on SDKs that do, you'll need to recompile and potentially adjust your code for 16 KB compatibility. The good news? Once your application is updated for the 16 KB page size, the same application binary can run seamlessly on both 4 KB and 16 KB devices.
This table describes who needs to transition and recompile their apps
We’ve created several Android Studio tools and guides that can help you prepare for migrating to using 16 KB page size.
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