Google Pixel Tablet to only support 64-bit apps in a bid for improved efficiency

Mishaal Rahman has discovered a new tidbit about the Pixel Tablet, a device that Google teased in May at its I/O 2022 conference. While Google focused on revealing devices that would launch later this year for the most part, it confirmed that the Pixel Tablet was over a year away. Writing on Twitter, Rahman explains that Google has included the entry 'Move tangor to 64-bit only' in Android 13 source code, 'tangor' being the codename for the Pixel Tablet.

On the one hand, limiting the Pixel Tablet to running 64-bit apps would reduce its versatility and compatibility across the Android ecosystem, still one of the platform's selling points compared to iOS and iPadOS. On the other hand, moving away from 32-bit apps would allow Google to bundle a smaller operating system without the presence of 32-bit code. For context, Google already offers a 64-bit only version of Android, starting with Android 12.

Additionally, Google has forced developers to publish 64-bit code versions of their apps on the Google Play Store since mid-2019. In other words, the Pixel Tablet should have no issue loading apps that have been updated within the last three years. Theoretically, the change would reduce memory usage and could point to a direction in which Android and the Pixel series are headed as a whole. Incidentally, Apple started doing this five years ago with iOS 11, before ceasing 32-bit support on macOS with macOS Catalina 10.15.

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