With Android 15, Google increases the minimum requirements for smartphones. In the future, 32 GB of memory will be required, twice as much as before. There are also new requirements for RAM and graphics interfaces that will affect particularly budget devices.
Android 15 doubles memory requirements
With Android 15, Google significantly screws up the minimum requirements for smartphones. In the future, devices will have to bring at least 32 GB of internal memory in order to be able to use the operating system including Google Mobile Services (GMS). A doubling compared to the previous minimum requirement of 16 GB, which has been valid since Android 13. Of these 32 GB, at least 75 percent must be reserved for data partition, on which the system, pre -installed apps and user data are saved.
The increase in the minimum requirements not only affects new devices, but also existing devices: smartphones with less than 32 GB of memory cannot be updated to Android 15. However, this should only affect a few users, since most current smartphones are now equipped with at least 64 GB of storage even in the budget segment.
More RAM, graphic claims and security
In addition to the storage space, there are also changes in the RAM requirements, such as Android Authority reported. Devices with 3 GB of RAM also have to use the Android Go Edition in the future – the Android variant specially optimized for weak hardware. So far, this requirement only applied to devices with 2 GB RAM. Smartphones with less than 2 GB RAM can generally no longer use Google services.
Google is already planning the next increase for Android 16: Then devices with 4 GB RAM will also fall into the Android Go category. In fact, this means that at least 6 GB RAM will be required for the full Android experience. On the graphic page, Google for Android 15 demands support from Vulkan 1.3 and the integration of Angle libraries.
Angle (Almost Native Graphics Layer Engine) translates older OpenGL ES calls in Vulkan, which ensures compatibility with older apps and games. An important innovation also affects security. Android 15 demands from all devices with telephone function to offer users the option of sharing their emergency contacts with the Emergency Location Service.
This enables emergency services to not only determine the location of the user in an emergency, but also to inform their emergency contacts.
