The tech giant has announced two new app quality requirements on Google Play, one focused on cutting apps’ memory usage, and another aimed at securing device migrations, with clear consequences for developers who don’t comply. Google is making changes to its requirements for Android apps as developers face industry-wide memory chip shortages driven by the AI data center boom.
Apps published on Google Play will need at least 25% coverage across optimisation, shrinking, and obfuscation using tools like R8.
The message to developers is blunt: exceed these limits, and “it will be slowed down and may be terminated.” In a blog post, Raghavendra Hareesh Pottamsetty, GM of Google Play Developer & Monetization wrote, “The mobile industry is navigating significant hardware supply constraints that are altering device memory availability that over time can negatively impact the user experience. To address this, Android is rolling out broader memory limits designed to stop individual apps from hogging device memory and slowing down the entire system. Google Play is now setting performance thresholds across three areas: dynamic memory usage (an app’s private data storage), bitmap memory usage, and code optimisation.
Starting in April 2027, apps will need to meet this requirement to maintain full publishing capabilities and visibility in the Play Store. Games are currently exempt, though Google says tailored guidance for gaming authentication is coming in 2027. The memory limits were first introduced with Android 17 on Pixel phones, and the base configurations of the Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL reportedly ship with less RAM than last year’s models. As Android 17 spreads across the wider ecosystem, Google is warning developers to prepare for a much broader range of device memory configurations, from 4GB to 16GB and beyond.
To help developers prepare, Google has started rolling out new diagnostic tools in Play Console, including deeper memory metrics in Android vitals, a filter to track “out of memory” crashes, DEX code optimisation insights for every uploaded app bundle, and proactive alerts when apps exceed the new thresholds. More tools, including deeper insights into the Android Memory Limiter feature, are expected later this year. Alongside the memory rules, Google is introducing a Zero-Tap Sign-In standard, requiring apps that support user sign-in to automatically restore a user’s sign-in state when they switch to a new Android device, using the Android Restore Credentials API. The timing isn’t a coincidence.