There is a concrete possibility that the Google Pixel Tablet will only support 64-bit apps, thus abandoning the 32-bit ones, and it cannot be excluded that the same fate touches Android 14 more generally. Esper. For the avoidance of doubt, the abandonment of 32-bit has already been underway for some time, and at this point it represents little more than a formality, given that already from 2019 the Play Store accepts only 64-bit apps.
PIXEL TABLET
Above you can see the screenshot of the commit for the passage to only 64 bit of the Pixel Tablet (whose code name, as confirmed by previous investigations, is precisely Tangor). According to the rumors and reconstructions that have emerged so far, the device will still come with Android 13, but a special version able to run only apps with more modern architecture. It remains to be seen if this OS will become a real “Tablet Edition” also offered to third-party manufacturers or if Google will keep it for itself.
ANDROID 14
Already more than a year ago a proposal emerged according to which only native Android 14 devices with 3GB of RAM or less will support 32-bit. It is now practically impossible to find smartphones with so little volatile memory, unless you look in the lower and cheaper range destined for emerging markets; it could even be assumed that Android 14 GO Edition will be the only one to support 32-bit, while Android 14 will be exclusively 64-bit. A recently discovered commit, seen above, seems to confirm that at least cores with ArmV9 architecture or newer will not be able to run 32-bit apps.
A GOODBYE IN PROGRESS FOR YEARS
As we said, the transition to 64-bit has been underway for several years. By now all the processors contained in the SoC for smartphones are 64-bit for several generations. ARM is even starting to remove 32-bit support from its processor architectures. Apple with iOS and macOS even abandoned 32-bit as early as 2017.
At present, 32-bit support is basically kept right for backward compatibility issues, but these are extremely rare edge cases. However, their complete elimination will have a significant positive impact on memory consumption, chip efficiency and other tangible performance aspects. In short, the devices could be faster and more efficient both from the point of view of the use of system resources and, consequently, from the energy one.
