The memory limitations were first introduced with Android 17, appearing first on Pixel phones. It’s probably no coincidence that the base configurations of the Pixel 11 Pro and 11 Pro XL come with less RAM than last year’s models. As Android 17 rolls out to the wider ecosystem, Google warns developers that they’ll need to play nice with a much bigger range of devices: “Over the coming year, an increasing number of manufacturers will leverage the Android per-app memory limits across their portfolio of device RAM configurations from 4GB to 16GB+ devices.”

Google has a pretty clear directive if apps misbehave: “If your app exceeds these limits, it will be slowed down and may be terminated.” But yesterday’s post hints at even bigger… ramifications (I’m so sorry): “Apps and games that do not meet these thresholds may see reduced app visibility and publishing capabilities on Google Play. Additional details will be provided later this year.” Google says it will start enforcing the memory limits in February 2027, so app makers have some time to figure it out, but dang. That’s potentially pretty serious.

The memory shortage has had a well-documented impact on hardware, and it seems that it’s time for software developers to feel the squeeze, too. And Google isn’t playing around — it seems to be putting some real teeth behind its new memory policies.