Elevating app quality: Reducing memory usage and improving device migration

Posted by Raghavendra Hareesh Pottamsetty, GM, Google Play Developer & MonetizationMaintaining a healthy Android ecosystem is a shared commitment where every app and game has a role to play. To help you deliver the premium experiences users expect, Google Play is introducing two new quality requirements: one focused on reducing app memory footprint, and another on providing a secure, seamless device migration experience. First, to help developers navigate industry-wide hardware constraints and Android's broader memory limits, Google Play is establishing new performance thresholds. Second, as part of our broader commitment to elevate app quality, we are introducing a new onboarding standard to simplify and secure login during device upgrades. Reducing app memory usage and optimizing code The mobile industry is navigating significant hardware supply constraints that are altering device memory availability that over time can negatively impact the user experience. Android is addressing this challenge head-on with broader memory limits that aim to protect the overall user experience from apps using excess memory and causing system-wide slowdowns. Building on this, today Google Play is establishing performance thresholds to help developers ensure their apps continue to deliver the premium experience users expect. This includes new thresholds across dynamic memory usage, bitmap usage, and code optimization to prevent unexpected on-device performance throttling and app terminations. Dynamic memory usage (anonymous RSS + swap): This tracks the memory used for your app's private data storage, including both active and compressed memory. It excludes files stored on the device, such as code or assets. We will assess this usage across different app states (like when your app is in...

Original source: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/08/app-quality-memory-optimization-secure-onboarding.html
Publisher: Android Developers Blog