As we all know, 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. This is was also stated here and here and here.
Yet some of our apps' Google Play listings begin to display the following message when uploading a 32-bit only version:
The learn more link leads to the first link I've provided.
So was the deadline indeed extended to February 1, 2020? Is this extention for specific apps only? I have found nothing about this on Google.
We reached out to Google for clarification and received the following response:
Your app will not be removed after the deadline for 64-bit compliance in February.
However, once the deadline has passed, you will not be able to upload updates that don't support 64-bit versions of any 32-bit platforms supported by your app.
Our specific app received the February submission extension because we were partially supporting 64-bit. We had previously submitted x86_64 but not arm64-v8a.
It is a different deadline, so it was not extended. if you make an update right now it needs to include 64-bit support, but your app is still available on play store. So i assume february 2020 the app will be removed from play-store and no longer available for download unless you have provided an update that includes 64-bit support.
Related
https://developer.android.com/distribute/best-practices/develop/64-bit
Can anyone please advice on whether the 64-bit version of app is mandatory if the app is not published through play store?
Usually, our application is deployed through an MDM solution
As far as I know at the moment this is only mandatory if you deploy apps through the Play Store. A 32-bit app will run on 64-bit processors but it will perform worse than a 64-bit version of the app.
So at the moment there should be no issues besides performance. In future versions of Android though (if only 64-bit hardware will be supported), they may or may not impose a restriction on 64-bit apps running on Android.
Google Play has been sending emails entitled "Action required: Update your apps to be 64-bit compliant by August 1, 2019" to Android app developers.
I have been selling a small game (out of hobby -- I am not a professional game developer) on Google Play that uses the Libgdx library. I had followed the instructions as described in Android developers guide and this SO answer to modify the gradle build scripts. The APK analyzer showed that I now have the relevant .so files (namely, libgdx.so and libgdx-freetype.so) in the arm64-v8a and x86_64 folders. The new apk file was rolled out successfully a few days ago.
Nevertheless, I received another "Action required" email from Google today. Why? What can I do to comply with Google Play's requirements? How can I ensure that my app is built successfully with 64-bit support if I haven't any 64-bit device for testing?
Which version of libGDX are you using? Are you using any other libs?
I use libGDX 1.9.8 in my game and I didn't receive an e-mail for that version. I did receive an e-mail for a libGDX 1.9.6 game though.
I got an email from Google team thay is saying my app does not have 64bit apk uploaded. I'm already using react-native 0.59.10 and I thought that between 4 generated apks two of them are already 64 bit. Anybody to help?
I'm enclosing the email:
Hello Google Play Developer,
By August 1, 2019, all apps that use native code must provide a 64-bit
version in order to publish an update. As of the sending of this email, at
least one of your apps* does not yet meet the requirement:
NAME_OF_THE_APP_OF_MINE
Action required
Please review all of your apps for 64-bit compliance and submit your
updated apps by August 1, 2019. The Android developers guide provides
step-by-step instructions for assessing the use of native code and becoming
64-bit compliant, including identifying native libraries, building with
64-bit libraries, testing and publishing.
Please note that we are not making changes to our policy on 32-bit support.
Google Play will continue to deliver apps with 32-bit native code to 32-bit
devices. The requirement means that those apps will need to have a 64-bit
version as well.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Google Play developer
support.
*Note: This list of apps reflects Google's best estimate as of the sending
of this email. Only the top apps in your account are listed. This list
should not be considered exhaustive. We encourage you to review ALL of your
apps for native code and make sure 64-bit variants are offered where
necessary. A full list of exemptions to the August 1st deadline can be
found in our blog post.
The Google Play Team Conversation Globe
this is from my build.gradle: include "armeabi-v7a", "x86", "arm64-v8a", "x86_64" and I uploaded all the apks (without universal apk) to google play console release.
These are generated files, that I've uploaded to Google Play:
I'm also enclosing an output of build apk analyzer (Android Studio) of arm64-v8a apk file.
It means that i have no 32bit libs left in my 64bit build or am I wrong?
Thanks for any help!
if you are adding a new app to the Play Store, or updating an existing
app, you must target API level 26 (Android 8.0) or higher. And as
Google outlined in a recent blog post, new applications will be
required to have a target API level of 28 (Android 9.0) beginning in
August 2019.
https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2019/02/expanding-target-api-level-requirements.html
I think you will have all your answers here:
https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/1288668/Making-sure-your-Android-game-is-ready-for-64-bi-2
Just like Android give android version distribution worldwide?
I want same way google play-service distribution.
On the website, Google mentioned the only year of release.
Actually, we are using google map in our app so we wanted to confirm what should be our minimum play-services version so that it should work even if the user has not updated play-services.
My app minimum version is 15.
Afaik there is no official maintained distribution information like for the different Android OS versions.
But there are some hints about the distribution:
In 2014, Sundar Pichai made an official statement about the play services in the Developers keynote:
"Google Play Services ships every six weeks and 93% of our users are on the latest version of Google Play services across all versions of Android. In fact by shipping every six weeks we can, in many ways, iterate faster than the typical OS release cycle."
You can watch that on youtube, at around minute 45 and 35 seconds.
Since the play services are updated by the Playstore itself without requiring further interaction or confirmation of the user, I think you can assume that most users are quite up-to-date. So if you set the minimum required version to a version that was released some months ago you should include most of the users.
If you have an app on Google Play with a native library, and at some point you publish an updated version where support for an architecture (say, x86) is no more, will Google Play tell x86 users about an upgrade? Will those users still be able to download the older APK, where x86 support was present?
Example: version 1 has a native library built for ARM and for x86. Some people install it from Google Play. Then I, the author, publish version 2 where the said library is built for ARM only. Will existing users of v1 see an app update notification? Will Android/x86 users see the app on Google Play at all (with v1 available for download)?
I don't have a non-ARM Android device with Google Play on it, so I cannot check.
So you have native support libraries for x86 and ARM and you want to discontinue x86 at some point in the future and you want to know what happens when you do?
Under this scenario why would you want to tell the the x86 users to download something they already have? (the older version) or even about the new version (which they could not use)
There is a some what similar SO question here the might help with your question but as I understand it if you require native library support only devices with that architecture will be allowed to down load it, update or not.
Multiple APK support is documented here
I guess I am not totally clear what your use case is, the problem might just be that I have been up for 26 hours straight ... ;-)