AI’s Memory Crunch Is Coming for Android Apps — Google’s New Memory Limits Explained
Google published two new Play app quality requirements on 27 August 2026, and the first of them makes memory usage a publishing condition from February 2027. Apps and games must stay under published per-tier thresholds for dynamic memory (anonymous RSS plus swap), bitmap memory and DEX code optimisation, measured at the 90th percentile over rolling 28-day windows. Google’s stated reason is unusual for a Play policy: “significant hardware supply constraints that are altering device memory availability” — the AI data centre boom draining consumer DRAM supply. This breakdown covers the published thresholds for apps and games across the 4 GB to 16 GB tiers, the Android 17 Memory Limiter that enforces the same idea through Linux cgroup v2, what tends to break first, the contradiction between Gemini Intelligence’s 12 GB requirement and shrinking budget-phone RAM, and the work to schedule before the deadline.
