Google confirms the Pixel 7 is its first 64-bit handset, and why it’s a good thing
Earlier this month according to some speculation and digging, it was suggested that the Google Pixel 7 series could be a 64-bit only smartphone, which meant that sideloading older 32-bit apps would not be possible. Now in a new blog post on its website, Google has confirmed that to be true.
For those unfamiliar, Google started to make the transition a while back where they introduced a requirement for Android developers to ensure that their apps were 64-bit, and now the company is sharing a few reasons why going fully 64-bit is a good thing. According to Google:
“64-bit apps run faster because they have access to extra registers and instructions that aren’t available to 32-bit apps. In addition, newer CPUs deliver up to 25% better performance when running 64-bit code or even drop support for 32-bit code altogether.
64-bit can help improve security. The bigger address space makes defenses like ASLR more effective and the spare bits can be used to protect control flow integrity. These countermeasures may reduce the chance an intruder can take control of your device.
Removing support for 32-bit code saves up to 150MB of RAM, which was used by the OS even when not running 32-bit apps. These memory savings result in fewer out-of-memory conditions meaning less jank and fewer background app kills.”
We imagine that most end users might not notice any differences, but just know that these changes are a good thing as it will result in a handset that will run more efficiently with better security.
Source: Google