Google Just Raised the Minimum Requirements for Android 15
Google started rolling out Android 15 back in October , adding a number of interesting and useful new features to compatible devices. Six months later, the company decided to raise the minimum requirements that manufacturers must meet in order for their devices to run Google’s latest software. Good news? It’s not that strict.
Android Authority reported this week that Google is now requiring devices to have at least 32GB of internal storage to update to Android 15. That’s not 32GB of free space; rather, the storage device itself must be 32GB or larger. In Android 14 (and Android 13 before it), this requirement was 16 GB, which is half what Android 15 now requires.
This is largely due to GMS (Google Mobile Services). GMS is Google’s set of pre-installed apps and APIs, including things like the Google Play Store and Google Play Services. While theoretically an Android maker could still release a phone with less than 32GB of storage, it would lose out to GMS, which would seriously impact the experience that users are accustomed to.
Another key change is the minimum RAM requirements. As with Android 14, devices running Android 15 can have up to 2GB of RAM. However, these devices must be running Android Go, which is a version of the OS optimized for devices with low RAM. The change this year is that devices with 3GB RAM will also need to use the Android Go version. This can be beneficial from a performance standpoint since the software doesn’t put as much strain on your device’s limited hardware. But this will mean that your phone, which may have been running the full version of Android 14, will be running a stripped-down version of Android 15 and may not have the new features.
However, your device with 3GB RAM may not run the full version of Android 14 anyway. This is because manufacturers still have the option to install a version of Android Go for devices with low RAM. For Android 15, smartphone manufacturers with 4GB RAM can opt for the Android Go version. In Android 14, this option was for devices with 3 GB of RAM.
The new requirements are not particularly punishing. Of course, high-end smartphones have specs that exceed these minimums, but the same can be said for many mid-range and budget phones. You can buy last year’s Motorola Moto G Power phone for just over $200, and it comes with 128GB of internal storage and 8GB of RAM. This is likely to apply to manufacturers who make very cheap devices: hopefully, doubling the storage and increasing the amount of RAM won’t cause the cost of these smartphones to increase too much.