What is 32-bit support, and why was it killed?
Android started as a 32-bit operating system. This has many ramifications, but the most important one for you and me is that it could only address a maximum of 4GB of RAM. Google followed in Apple’s footsteps by adding 64-bit support in 2015, enabling support for more RAM as well as better performance. But 32-bit support didn’t go anywhere at the time.
Unfortunately, Google’s Pixel 7 series shipped without 32-bit support back in late 2022. Google and high-end chipmakers then decided to kill it entirely the following year, with Android 14 generally lacking this feature. There were some benefits to ditching 32-bit support, such as freeing up system resources, better security, and improving performance in general. This is also a boon for chipmakers as they have freed up silicon that was previously devoted to 32-bit support.
Say goodbye to my favorite games
Despite all these benefits, I have reasons to dislike this change after all this time. The biggest is that I’ve accumulated over 130 games via Humble Bundles over the years, and I can no longer play many of them. These pay-what-you-want deals for Android games were my favorite way to get new premium Android games, including hits such as the Metal Slug series, the King of Fighters franchise, and This War of Mine.
Some of these games still work, but many titles were 32-bit-only, or their Humble Bundle versions never received 64-bit upgrades. I have loads of classics in my library that I’d love to play once again, including classic mobile platformer Mikey Boots, retro puzzler Chu Chu Rocket, early mobile hit Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, Doodle God, and more.
Can you still play these games in 2025?
I have a few options to keep playing 32-bit-only games in 2025. The easiest way is to use a phone with Android 13, as these devices generally still support 32-bit apps. But of course, you might not want to keep an old phone purely for this purpose. And there’s also simply no guarantee that some games will actually run on your device. Furthermore, this option becomes more of a challenge down the line as these older devices break down.
It’s also worth noting that Xiaomi’s flagship phones, like the Xiaomi 15, retained a framework to run 32-bit apps on 64-bit-only phones. Unfortunately for me and others in the same predicament, Xiaomi restricted this framework and support to the Chinese market. What a disappointment. I really wish Xiaomi and other OEMs brought this framework to global users. Some users online have also recommended a virtual machine (VM) running an older version of Android to play 32-bit games. But this solution hasn’t worked for me, likely due to the intrinsic hardware limitations here.
