Google has introduced new Android RAM rules for app developers, tightening memory-management requirements as a global RAM shortage continues to squeeze the smartphone industry. Developers have until February 2027 to make their apps use RAM more efficiently, an effort meant to keep apps running smoothly even on phones with limited memory.
Under the updated guidelines, apps that exceed a predefined memory threshold could be throttled or forcibly closed by the operating system, preventing a single memory-hungry app from making the entire device sluggish or causing it to crash.
To meet the new requirements, Google is asking developers to optimize three specific areas of their apps: dynamic memory usage, bitmap memory usage, and DEX code.
The stricter rules could end up helping owners of older or lower-spec Android phones the most, since many of those users can’t easily upgrade as device prices keep rising – a trend partly fueled by the same RAM shortage that’s driving Google’s new requirement.
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Robert Haba is the founder and editor-in-chief of Droid Tools. A lifelong gadget enthusiast with over a decade following the Android ecosystem, he built this publication to cut through the noise and give readers honest, real-world coverage of the tech they actually use.
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