You don't need to care about 16 KB memory pages, but it's still an important change. Here's why

Did you know that all Android apps will be required to support 16 KB pages in the future? Google says this change is necessary to make the system more efficient. While this information is interesting, the good news is that, as an Android user, you don't need to know or care about it at all.

Still, it's a significant change. Software can't stay backward compatible forever, and as the hardware it powers advances, things have to be adapted. A 16 KB page size means the system can spend more resources keeping everything smooth instead of writing table entries, and we all want things to run smoothly.

In case you're wondering, Android currently uses a 4 KB page size. Inside a processor, memory management units keep track of the physical location of all data in your phone's memory on a "page size" basis. Making that page size four times bigger means the system needs to make these translations four times less often. That's it. That's the whole enchilada.

For us, this means that possible bottlenecks can be avoided. We've all seen our phones stop doing anything for a second or two. This could be when opening or closing an app or loading a large app in the background. It can and does happen, but with this new change, this is less likely to be a problem in the future.

According to Google, the move to 16 KB page sizes means faster app launches from 3% to 30%, improved battery usage, quicker camera startup time, and speedier system boot-ups. Many of the changes may seem small, but the point is that things should cumulatively get better.

Memory management is very intricate and finicky. Small hiccups can cascade into something that we notice, though usually, it's all pretty seamless. Sometimes, a larger page size is part of the solution. Anything that is both future-proof and has the potential to improve performance is a welcome change.

Remember when Android started requiring all apps to support 64-bit processors? I don't blame you if you don't. I think it's safe to say that none of us really noticed the difference. The change was needed to make sure that Android was ready for hardware advancements, but the change most likely made very little difference once it all trickled down to the user.

When there is better performance, everyone is happy, so the requirements are changing to support it all. This is the same sort of change. The page size on your phone has grown to a bigger size. With a bigger page size, there can be better performance.

You don't need to understand what a 16 KB page size is any more than you need to know what a 64-bit OS means. It's interesting and important all the same, so you'll see people talking about it.

Feel free to ignore all the jargon and complicated stuff in the article, or just think of it as Google doing what needs to be done to keep Android relevant in 2025 and beyond.