3 ms·

That ship already sailed, most legacy Android games were killed by 32bit support being phased out both in hardware (newer SOCs are 64bit only) and software (And

That ship already sailed, most legacy Android games were killed by 32bit support being phased out both in hardware (newer SOCs are 64bit only) and software (Android 14 doesn't support 32bit apps even when running on an older SOC). They've done it before and they'll do it again.

mappu 1y ago
Which is a shame, a modern SoC is fast enough to emulate 32-bit in userspace with same-or-better performance than the real 32-bit SoCs from that period.
iggldiggl 1y ago
> Android 14 doesn't support 32bit apps even when running on an older SOC Huh? Tell that to my phone. Maybe Google dropped support from their own OS builds even for older phones, but I don't think AOSP as such has dropped 32-bit-compatibility yet, and other OEMs have kept 32-bit-support for those phones whose hardware still supports it. (And at least one or two Chinese OEMs have been shipping some sort of compatibility layer for phones without hardware support, though possibly only for the domestic market, not export models/OS builds.) It's true though that Google isn't too heavily invested in binary compatibility for native code, though to some extent their hand might have also been forced by the SOC manufacturers, because apparently 32-bits hardware compatibility is more expensive to provide on ARM.
71bw 1y ago
>(Android 14 doesn't support 32bit apps even when running on an older SOC). Completely untrue and can be entirely circumvented by one ADB flag (--bypass-low-target-sdk-block) or a third-party .apk installer.
- DiabloD3 1y ago
  In other words, completely true because this is HN and we know things that the other 99.999% of the world doesn't and never will and never even thinks to ask. Instead, "Google took away my favorite software off my device that I paid money for, and fuck 'em for doing it" is a totally okay thing for normal people to do.
  - Wowfunhappy 1y ago
    Fwiw when I asked the question I was specifically wondering if the apps will work at all, not whether they're easily accessible or easy to install.
  - 71bw 1y ago
    And yet this issue is brought up by everyone often enough for there to be multiple YouTube guides, XDA threads and other sources of information explaining this to what you would probably call 'normal people'.
- aprilnya 1y ago
  Well, I wouldn’t call it “completely” untrue if you need to use an ADB flag or third-party installer… most users will get apps from the Play Store and nowhere else
surajrmal 1y ago
WearOS devices are still predominantly 32bit. Android hasn't stopped supporting those in any way. They are trying to entice phones to no longer support 32bit but the support on Android still exists.

mappu 1y ago

Which is a shame, a modern SoC is fast enough to emulate 32-bit in userspace with same-or-better performance than the real 32-bit SoCs from that period.

iggldiggl 1y ago

> Android 14 doesn't support 32bit apps even when running on an older SOC Huh? Tell that to my phone. Maybe Google dropped support from their own OS builds even for older phones, but I don't think AOSP as such has dropped 32-bit-compatibility yet, and other OEMs have kept 32-bit-support for those phones whose hardware still supports it. (And at least one or two Chinese OEMs have been shipping some sort of compatibility layer for phones without hardware support, though possibly only for the domestic market, not export models/OS builds.) It's true though that Google isn't too heavily invested in binary compatibility for native code, though to some extent their hand might have also been forced by the SOC manufacturers, because apparently 32-bits hardware compatibility is more expensive to provide on ARM.

71bw 1y ago

>(Android 14 doesn't support 32bit apps even when running on an older SOC). Completely untrue and can be entirely circumvented by one ADB flag (--bypass-low-target-sdk-block) or a third-party .apk installer.

DiabloD3 1y ago
In other words, completely true because this is HN and we know things that the other 99.999% of the world doesn't and never will and never even thinks to ask. Instead, "Google took away my favorite software off my device that I paid money for, and fuck 'em for doing it" is a totally okay thing for normal people to do.
- Wowfunhappy 1y ago
  Fwiw when I asked the question I was specifically wondering if the apps will work at all, not whether they're easily accessible or easy to install.
- 71bw 1y ago
  And yet this issue is brought up by everyone often enough for there to be multiple YouTube guides, XDA threads and other sources of information explaining this to what you would probably call 'normal people'.
aprilnya 1y ago
Well, I wouldn’t call it “completely” untrue if you need to use an ADB flag or third-party installer… most users will get apps from the Play Store and nowhere else

surajrmal 1y ago

WearOS devices are still predominantly 32bit. Android hasn't stopped supporting those in any way. They are trying to entice phones to no longer support 32bit but the support on Android still exists.