If you've been following the Google Pixel 7 series launch, there's been a lot happening. the kernel sources just dropped for both devices, there's a display issue that seems to drain battery life, and reviews are starting to drip in slowly. As people get their hands on devices, users are starting to test them and investigate under the hood. As it turns out, the Google Pixel 7 series appears to be the first set of Android smartphones that only support 64-bit applications.
Rahman later corrected himself to say that it's a 64-bit Zygote but a 32-bit and 64-bit userspace, not a 64-bit only build of Android 13 as initially reported. This certainly lends credence to the claim that the Google Pixel tablet may come with a 64-bit only build of Android 13, though.
What this means is that for any apps that don't have 64-bit libraries, you won't be able to install them. This includes older versions of apps such as Jetpack Joyride and even older, completely defunct apps like Flappy Bird. It's not as if Tensor G2 doesn't support it either -- its three different cores all support AArch32 execution. Google could have enabled 32-bit support as they have done in its previous smartphones.
Listing the Android Binary Interfaces (ABI) returns that there is nothing present for "armeabi-v7a" or "armeabi". "arm64-v8a" support is listed, but as per the Android documentation, it only supports the AArch64 instruction set.
[ro.product.cpu.abi]: [arm64-v8a]
[ro.product.cpu.abilist]: [arm64-v8a]
[ro.product.cpu.abilist32]: []
[ro.product.cpu.abilist64]: [arm64-v8a]
[ro.vendor.product.cpu.abilist]: [arm64-v8a]
[ro.vendor.product.cpu.abilist32]: []
[ro.vendor.product.cpu.abilist64]: [arm64-v8a]
What does this mean, and does it have any benefits? Most benefits won't really be visible to consumers, as these improvements are primarily found in heightened security, better performance, and reduced processing cost thanks to the lack of additional ABIs. All apps on the Google Play Store have had to have 64-bit support since August 2019, and the company stopped serving 32-bit apps that don't have any 64-bit support last year.
For anyone who has a Pixel 7 series device, there's nothing to worry about. You'll be hard-pressed to find apps that don't have any 64-bit libraries, and so far, Flappy Bird seems to be the most high-profile. If you do find any more though, do let us know in the comments!