Android 13 raises the minimum system requirements to 2GB RAM, 16GB storage

Android 13 recently hit the streets, and with it Google is raising the minimum requirements for Android phones. on Google the latest blog publication announced that the minimum amount of RAM for Android Go, the low-end version of Android, is now 2GB for Android 13, while it was previously 1GB. of Esper Mishal Rahman and Google Product Expert Jason Batten also claim that the minimum storage requirements have been increased to 16GB, although Google doesn’t seem to have publicly documented this anywhere.

The increase in system requirements means that any phone that does not meet the minimum specifications will not be able to update to Android 13. New phones launched with Android 13 will need to meet the minimum requirements to be eligible for licensing on the Play Store, even though they run on an older version of Android (with lower requirements) will still be an option for a while. Technically, anyone can take the Android source code and build anything with it, but if you want to license Google apps and have access to Google’s “Android” trademark, you’ll have to follow Google’s rules.

Android Go is a stripped-down version of Android that has some of the more RAM-intensive features turned off and comes with a suite of purpose-built, lightweight “Go” apps. Google’s requirements won’t affect the US market much – even devices like this are very cheap $30 phone Walmart have 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage. Android Go’s requirements are mostly about supporting OEMs in the developing world, where it’s still possible to find devices with 1GB of RAM. Google says more than 250 million people use Android Go today.

While these are just the phone’s requirements, the minimum 16GB of storage would be a great idea to implement in any form factor in the Android ecosystem. Last month, protocol reported that Google “strongly encourages” manufacturers of smart TVs and streaming devices to ship with 16 GB of memory. Google’s Android-based Chromecast with Google TV only has 8GB of memory and is a a constant source of trouble. It’s so bad that we wouldn’t be surprised to see a rumored cheaper model increase its storage.