Posted by Michael Stillwell, Developer Relations Engineer and Dimitris Kosmidis, Product Manager, Wear OS

64-bit architectures provide performance improvements and a foundation for future innovation, delivering faster and richer experiences for your users. We’ve supported 64-bit CPUs since Android 5. This aligns Wear OS with recent updates for Google TV and other form factors, building on the 64-bit requirement first introduced for mobile in 2019.

Today, we are extending this 64-bit requirement to Wear OS. This blog provides guidance to help you prepare your apps to meet these new requirements.

The 64-bit requirement: timeline for Wear OS developers

Starting September 15, 2026:

• All new apps and app updates that include native code will be required to provide 64-bit versions in addition to 32-bit versions when publishing to Google Play.
• Google Play will start blocking the upload of non-compliant apps to the Play Console.

We are not making changes to our policy on 32-bit support, and Google Play will continue to deliver apps to existing 32-bit devices.

The vast majority of Wear OS developers has already made this shift, with 64-bit compliant apps already available. For the remaining apps, we expect the effort to be small.

Preparing for the 64-bit requirement

Many apps are written entirely in non-native code (i.e. Kotlin or Java) and do not need any code changes. However, it is important to note that even if you do not write native code yourself, a dependency or SDK could be introducing it into your app, so you still need to check whether your app includes native code.

Assess your app

• Inspect your APK or app bundle for native code using the APK Analyzer in Android Studio.
• Look for .so files within the lib folder. For ARM devices, 32-bit libraries are located in lib/armeabi-v7a, while the 64-bit equivalent is lib/arm64-v8a.
• Ensure parity: The goal is to ensure that your app runs correctly in a 64-bit-only environment. While specific configurations may vary, for most apps this means that for each native 32-bit architecture you support, you should include the corresponding 64-bit architecture by providing the relevant .so files for both ABIs.
• Upgrade SDKs: If you only have 32-bit versions of a third-party library or SDK, reach out to the provider for a 64-bit compliant version.

How to test 64-bit compatibility

The 64-bit version of your app should offer the same quality and feature set as the 32-bit version. The Wear OS Android Emulator can be used to verify that your app behaves and performs as expected in a 64-bit environment.

Note: Since Wear OS apps are required to target Wear OS 4 or higher to be submitted to Google Play, you are likely already testing on these newer, 64-bit only images.

When testing, pay attention to native code loaders such as SoLoader or older versions of OpenSSL, which may require updates to function correctly on 64-bit only hardware.

Next steps

We are announcing this requirement now to give developers a six-month window to bring their apps into compliance before enforcement begins in September 2026. For more detailed guidance on the transition, please refer to our in-depth documentation on supporting 64-bit architectures.

This transition marks an exciting step for the future of Wear OS and the benefits that 64-bit compatibility will bring to the ecosystem.