Give me more RAM: Android’s changing hardware specifications impact on 3-GIS | Mobile

As most people know, technology, particularly hardware, continues to mature and advance. I think back to the first desktop computer my family had and the jaw-dropping 128k of RAM it had and compare that to the laptop I am writing on that has 16 gigabytes of RAM. That's 16,777,216k!!! The change did not happen overnight. It happened over about 35 years in my example. While not exclusive to Android, we are seeing this evolution continue today with the new releases of the Android operating system.

What changes will you see?

With new releases of the Android operating system, Android has increased the minimum amount of RAM the device needs. Since the minimum RAM required by Android is contingent upon the operating system performing optimally, Android expects it to be there for applications to run properly too. If you or your organization use 3-GIS | Mobile for Android, we recommend reviewing all of the devices with 3-GIS | Mobile and making sure the amount of RAM available aligns with that particular version of Android. Moving forward, 3-GIS will be increasing the minimum RAM application specification for 3-GIS | Mobile to 4GB or the Android operating system requirement, whichever is greater. Android 10 & 11 currently recommend 4GB of RAM, while Android 12 has a minimum of 6GB of RAM according to Android documentation.

We recognize changes like this can be disruptive. If you have additional questions around this we are happy to help and talk with you more about what these changes might mean for your organization.