The RAM shortage has already reached Android apps. Google is preparing to tighten control over how much RAM they use. Starting in February 2027, apps and games that consume too much RAM may lose visibility on Google Play or be restricted from publishing updates.
The RAM shortage has already reached Android apps. Google is preparing to tighten control over how much RAM they use. Starting in February 2027, apps and games that consume too much RAM may lose visibility on Google Play or be restricted from publishing updates.
The company announced this on the Android Developers Blog.
The company attributes the changes to the situation on the RAM market. Due to rising prices, smartphone manufacturers are increasingly not increasing the amount of RAM in new models or even reducing it. And applications are not becoming «lighter».
So in Android 17, the company introduced individual memory limits for each application. According to the company, other manufacturers will start using them over the next year — on smartphones from budget models with 4 GB of RAM to devices with more than 16 GB.
So, on Android 17, if an app exceeds its allocated limit, Android will first be able to slow it down by compressing data in memory more actively. If that’s not enough, the system will simply end the process.
Now, in addition to the technical limits, there will be consequences on Google Play. Google will start measuring how much RAM an app uses and how well its code is optimized. Developers can already see these metrics in Android vitals in the Play Console and receive warnings if an app goes outside the recommended limits.
If an app consistently fails to meet the thresholds, it could affect its visibility on Google Play and ability to publish new versions starting in February 2027. The company promises to announce detailed rules later this year.
Previously, dev.ua wrote that Micron called the memory shortage «unprecedented» and expects it to continue into 2027.
