Google just announced that it will give developers on Android the ability to switch between 4KB and 16KB page sizes. In layman's terms, this means you'll see up to a 10 percent performance improvement when apps switch to 16KB.
Page sizes, in simple terms, refer to the units of memory a CPU manages at once. Hardware has traditionally been limited to 4 KB page sizes, and so has software support for them. With newer processors supporting 16 KB page sizes, Google wants to make the transition easier for developers.
Google will also work to provide Android 16K-supported development tools and emulators to app developers. Overall, Google says the average user should see improvements in video quality, gaming performance, and the smoothness of apps.
Your Pixel 8 will get better… in some time. | Image credit — PhoneArena
Developers will have to adapt their apps to 16KB page sizes. They will also have to learn how to use the new tools and emulators. Not to mention the fact that there is still hardware that simply does not support 16KB page sizes. So there might be apps that stick with 4KB page sizes just so developers don't have more work to do to ensure compatibility.
But whatever apps switch to 16 KB page size will really feel like an upgrade. And as support for 16KB pages becomes more common, more and more of the best phones on the market today are shipping with hardware that can take advantage of the larger page sizes.