Game Phone Tablet Wear: A Guide to Android ABIs and App Compatibility

If you are an Android user who loves gaming, you might have encountered some issues with app compatibility, performance, or updates. You might have wondered why some apps work on your phone but not on your tablet, or why some games run faster or smoother than others. You might have also noticed some strange terms like armeabi-v7a, arm64-v8a, x86, or x86_64 when downloading or updating apps. What do these terms mean and how do they affect your gaming experience?

In this article, we will explain everything you need to know about Android ABIs (Application Binary Interfaces) and how they relate to app compatibility, performance, and updates. We will also show you how to check your device’s ABI and supported architectures, how to find apps that are compatible with your device’s ABI, and how to download and update apps for different Android ABIs. Finally, we will recommend some of the best games for different Android ABIs and architectures, so you can enjoy gaming on your phone, tablet, or wearable device.

An ABI (Application Binary Interface) is a set of rules and specifications that define how an app interacts with the system and the hardware of a device. An ABI includes information about the CPU instruction set, the memory layout, the data types, the function calls, and the binary format of an app.

Different Android devices use different CPUs, which in turn support different instruction sets. Each combination of CPU and instruction set has its own ABI. For example, most Android devices use ARM-based CPUs, which support the armeabi-v7a (32-bit) or arm64-v8a (64-bit) instruction sets. Some Android devices use Intel-based CPUs, which support the x86 (32-bit) or x86_64 (64-bit) instruction sets.

An app that is built for a specific ABI can only run on devices that support that ABI. For example, an app that is built for armeabi-v7a can only run on devices that support armeabi-v7a. An app that is built for arm64-v8a can only run on devices that support arm64-v8a. An app that is built for x86 can only run on devices that support x86. And so on.

This means that if you want your app to run on as many Android devices as possible, you need to build it for multiple ABIs. This also means that if you want to run an app on your device, you need to make sure that it supports your device’s ABI.

There are several ways to check your device’s ABI and supported architectures