highAndroid Developers Blog·April 1, 2026

Get your Wear OS apps ready for the 64-bit requirement

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 

Key Insights

1

Wear OS apps with native code must include 64-bit versions by September 15, 2026 or face upload blocks on Google Play

2

Google is standardizing 64-bit requirements across all Android form factors (mobile, TV, Wear OS) for performance and future innovation

3

Developers have approximately 21 months to prepare their Wear OS apps for the new 64-bit compliance requirement