Google pushes 64 Bit

[Markus Kinzler 174]

Starting this August 64-Bit support is required for new apps and updates.

 

https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2019/01/get-your-apps-ready-for-64-bit.html

[Stéphane Wierzbicki 45]

Am I mistaken  but both MacOS and Android compiler are 32bit ?

 

[Markus Kinzler 174]

That's the problem. Android 64 is planned for version 10.4.

[Rollo62 536]

Quote

Starting August 1, 2019:

• All new apps and app updates that include native code are required to provide 64-bit versions in addition to 32-bit versions when publishing to Google Play.
  Does this mean there will be a dual-APK, like for iOS in the past ?
  # app updates and new apps need to support 32-bit plus 64-bit, so 32-bit is still there
• Extension: Google Play will continue to accept 32-bit only updates to existing games that use Unity 5.6 or older until August 2021.
  Unity seems to have a strong lobby

Starting August 1, 2021:

• Google Play will stop serving apps without 64-bit versions on 64-bit capable devices, meaning they will no longer be available in the Play Store on those devices.
  This seems to confirm above question, that 32-bit on older devices will be still delivered (but no longer possible to update).
  # app updates and new apps need to support 32-bit plus 64-bit, so 32-bit is still there
• This will include games built with Unity 5.6 or older.

The requirement does not apply to:

• APKs or app bundles explicitly targeting Wear OS or Android TV, which are form factors that do not currently support 64-bit code.
• APKs or app bundles that are not distributed to devices running Android 9 Pie or later.
  # app updates and new apps freezed to Android 9 or below are still allowed ?

Thanks for the reminder, if we try to analyse what this really means for us there are still some questions left (at least for me).
Maybe somebody know more about the coming changes in the PlayStore, etc. ?

Would be good to align the right launching strategy for new apps before the deadline.
For the earlier store changes I already placed new, planned apps, as dummy apps, before the deadline.
So that there are at least apps in the store, and Google might be a little less strict with them.

 

 

 

[Dalija Prasnikar 1396]

2 hours ago, Rollo62 said:

Would be good to align the right launching strategy for new apps before the deadline.
For the earlier store changes I already placed new, planned apps, as dummy apps, before the deadline.
So that there are at least apps in the store, and Google might be a little less strict with them.

 

Dummy apps will not help in this case. Updates also have 64 bit requirement.

 

At this point in time it is hard to say what is the right strategy, beyond making sure that you finish and polish your apps as much you can before the deadline.

 

10.4 is scheduled for mid 2019 so all should be good, but you never know.

[Rollo62 536]

I still have hope thats existing Apps might get  a somewhat less strict treatment. 

Its only a vague Hope...

[Dalija Prasnikar 1396]

2 hours ago, Rollo62 said:

I still have hope thats existing Apps might get  a somewhat less strict treatment. 

Its only a vague Hope...

No, they will not have less strict treatment.

 

Google knows exactly how many applications are affected by this (they can easily analyze applications submitted to the Play Store), and with the exception of older Unity games, obviously there is not too many.

Also, vast majority of Android applications don't have to worry about CPU support because they don't use (link) CPU specific code (libraries) and are written by toolsets that emit Android Dalvik byte code.

[Guest]

14 hours ago, Dalija Prasnikar said:

10.4 is scheduled for mid 2019 so all should be good, but you never know.

That would imply that it is also usable from the day of available. But we learned that we had to wait for the first update ...

[Dalija Prasnikar 1396]

9 hours ago, Schokohase said:

That would imply that it is also usable from the day of available. But we learned that we had to wait for the first update ...

 

Define usable.

 

Yes, I am aware that different people will have different needs and not all bugs affect all people.

 

And while there is a number of bugs that are still not resolved, I haven't encountered any really showstopper Android issues with Tokyo or Rio, regardless of the update number.

 

What might be greater problem in this case is general direction of removing ARC http://blog.marcocantu.com/blog/2018-october-Delphi-ARC-directions.html that would most likely happen in 10.4 release (as hinted in a linked blog post). If that happens that would be major change that could introduce bugs in both Delphi frameworks and your application code. While in the most part cross-platform code is also meant to run on non-ARC platforms, there are parts of the code specific for Android and/or iOS platforms where people were counting and using ARC.

 

In any case, I assume that there will be open beta for 10.4 version, just like there was for 10.3, and that developers on active subscription will be able to participate and ship applications with that beta if needed. I know this is far from ideal scenario, but it is better that nothing.