As we all know, for a long time in the past, Android's software operation efficiency has been widely considered to be far inferior to iOS/iPadOS.
Although there are reasons why Apple can develop its own chips, self-developed hardware, and make it deeply integrated with its own system. But in addition, there is another factor that must be mentioned, that is, Apple's strong binding force on developers.
One well-known example is that after Apple released iOS 8 in June 2014, just over half a year later, the App Store has mandated that all new apps must be built on the iOS8 SDK since February 2015. At first glance, Apple only gave developers less than a year to adapt to the new version of the system, but it is precisely because of such powerful measures that mainstream applications on iOS have achieved full 64-bit as early as 2015 and greatly improved performance.
On the other hand, on the Android side, on the one hand, everyone knows that the Android ecology, whether domestic or overseas, will not be fully switched to the 64-bit architecture until 2023 at the earliest, which is 8 years behind Apple. On the other hand, in the past Google App Store related policies, the requirements for "system version of application adaptation" were often very relaxed. For example, in the era of Android 10 and Android 11, Google only requires developers to "at least adapt to Android 8" to be qualified.
From a developer's point of view, if you had adapted it as early as the launch of Android 8, then even if you didn't update it at all for several years after that, Google wouldn't think there was anything wrong with your software.
However, this is coming to an end. Because just recently released the April 2022 version of the developer program policy, Google finally targeted some "lazy" developers.
According to this official document, starting in November this year, all Android developers must complete the application adaptation of the latest version of the system within one year after the release of the new version of the system, and applications that fail to do so will not be allowed to be listed or updated. At the same time, if an app has not been adapted two years after the release of the new version of the Android system, then its existing version will also be blocked from the app store.
What is this concept? Let's take an example. If you're a developer and maintain a blockbuster game, ○, and Google releases the official version of Android 13 in September this year, you have to develop a new version of the app with android 13 API by September next year. If the new version of the game still uses the underlying API of Android 12 at that time, it will not be available on the Google App Store, which means that the game will not be updated normally.
Not only that, but by September of the following year, if Android 13 had not been adapted (Android 14 had been released for a year at that time), the game would be blocked directly from the app store, and only players who had downloaded it in the past could still see it. That said, the game will completely lose its ability to "pull new", at least in the official channels of the Google App Store.
Obviously, for most regions of the world, Google's hand can be said to be an unprecedented tough move. But if you want to talk about why Google suddenly got so tough on the fact that apps must adapt to the new system as quickly as possible, it may not be just to narrow the experience gap with iOS/iPadOS.
After all, looking at the past few generations of Android version updates, from Android 8 to Android 11, whether it is in the application interface at the bottom of the system, or the user interface at the surface of the system, there is indeed not much change. But from Android 12, Android 12L, and Android 13, which is still in the testing stage, it can be clearly felt that Google is now "concerned" a lot about system performance. Not only actively support the latest chip architecture, the latest mobile graphics technology, the latest AI processing technology, but also for the folding screen, deformable equipment, etc., special adaptation.
In other words, when Google suddenly began to force developers to adapt to the new version of the Android system, this may indicate that the future of the new version of Android updates will gradually increase, the difference between each generation may be more, but also more active to play the latest hardware functions. From this point of view, it is obviously very good news to be happy.
【The picture of this article comes from the network】