Your App Must Support 16 KB Memory Page Sizes — What This Means & How to Fix It

Your App Must Support 16 KB Memory Page Sizes — What This Means & How to Fix It

Publishing your Android app in 2024–2025 now shows a new warning or rejection in Play Console:

“Your app must support 16 KB memory page sizes.”

This requirement confused many developers because:

• It does not show as an error inside Android Studio
• The app compiles and runs normally
• Most developers don’t understand what “memory page size” means
• There are almost no clear solutions online

This guide explains the issue in simple, practical terms and gives the exact fixes depending on your tech stack (Native Android, Flutter, React Native, Unity, NDK/C++ apps).

✅ What Does “16 KB Memory Page Size” Mean?

New Android devices (starting from 2023 hardware) use CPUs configured with:

• 4 KB page size (old devices)
• 16 KB page size (newer ARMv9-based devices)
• Both page sizes are supported by Google in the Play Store requirements

If your app contains any native code (NDK, .so files, Flutter engine, Unity libs), it must be compiled to support devices that use 16 KB memory pages.

If not, your app may:

• Crash on certain new devices
• Failed to load native libraries
• Fail Play Console device compatibility checks

So Google now requires:

👉 Your app must declare support for these devices

AND

👉 Your app’s native libraries must be compiled correctly.

✔ Native Android apps using:

• OpenCV
• TensorFlowLite
• ML Kit (legacy .so bundles)
• Audio/Video processing libraries
• Game engines
• VPN libraries
• Encryption libraries
• FFmpeg
• NDK custom code

✔ Flutter apps (VERY common)

Older Flutter versions did not support 16KB pages.

✔ Unity games

Older Unity versions produce 4KB-only binaries.

❌ Pure Kotlin/Java apps

NOT affected (unless using external .so libs).

🎯 Why Google Enforces This

Because new phones (2024–2025) like:

• Pixel 8 / 9
• Samsung S24 / S25
• Xiaomi 14
• Vivo X series
• Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 / 4 devices

Use ARM v9 with 16 KB page size , improving:

• Security
• Performance
• Memory efficiency

Apps built before this transition lack compatibility.

🔥 How to Fix “Your app must support 16 KB memory page sizes.”

Fix 1 — Rebuild Native Libraries with Updated NDK

If your app uses .so files:

1. Update your NDK to NDK r26+
2. Rebuild modules

android { ndkVersion "26.1.10909125" }

Why?

NDK r26 introduced compatibility for 16KB memory pages.

Fix 2 — Update Flutter to the Latest Version

Flutter apps before 3.16 do NOT support 16KB memory pages.

Run:

flutter upgrade

Then rebuild your release APK/AAB.

Fix 3 — Update Unity Version

Unity versions before 2022 LTS produce 4KB-only binaries.

Upgrade to:

✔ Unity 2022 LTS

✔ Unity 2023 LTS

Then rebuild your project.

Fix 4 — Remove OLD Native Libraries

Common problematic libraries:

• libopencv_java4.so
• Old TensorFlow Lite libs (before 2.12)
• ffmpeg older versions
• Custom C/C++ libs compiled before 2023

These must be recompiled or updated.

Fix 5 — Add Play Console Device Compatibility Manifest

Add this in AndroidManifest.xml :

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="21" />

And ensure:

• You are targeting API 34+
• You are using the latest AGP + Gradle

Fix 6 — Enable New android:extractNativeLibs Behavior

If you packaged .so files manually:

In AndroidManifest.xml :

<application
    android:extractNativeLibs="false">
</application>

This ensures the OS handles native libraries correctly on 16KB-page devices.

🎯 How to Verify Your App Supports 16KB Pages

Google now provides a testing tool:

1. Build Release AAB

./gradlew bundleRelease

2. Upload to Internal Testing

If your app is NOT compatible, Play Console will show:

❌ App does not support 16 KB memory page size✔ Devices excluded✔ Native library issue

If no warning appears → you’re good.

📝 Conclusion

The “Your app must support 16 KB memory page sizes” message isn’t a bug — it’s Google preparing for the future of Android architectures.

If your app uses ANY native components, updating your toolchains and libraries is mandatory.

This update ensures your app:

• Runs properly on new ARMv9 devices
• Avoids crashes
• Maintains Play Store compatibility
• Keeps long-term support

Originally published at https://syedali.dev.