Android 15 and 16 support

Written by Bruno Vunderl | Sep 26, 2025

Hey! If you have a Qt application published on Google Play Store, you might have recently received a few notifications that ask you to update your application with the latest features and requirements from Google. Let's take a look at the latest requirements and give you a quick way to get your application in a good shape.

Google Play Store requirements

Android 15 support

Android 15 support is going to be required for your application if you plan to update your application or post a new application to Google Play Store. Deadline for that has already passed on August 31^st 2025 but you can easily request extension to November 1^st 2025 through your Play Console. There are some exceptions to this case for TV and Android Automotive apps and you can read the original guideline in full over here.

Starting August 31 2025:

New apps and app updates must target Android 15 (API level 35) or higher to be submitted to Google Play; except for Wear OS, Android Automotive OS, and Android TV apps, which must target Android 14 (API level 34) or higher.
Existing apps must target Android 14 (API level 34) or higher to remain available to new users on devices running Android OS higher than your app’s target API level. Apps that target Android 13 (API level 33) or lower, including Android 12 (API level 31) or lower for Wear OS and Android TV, will only be available on devices running Android OS that are the same or lower than your apps’ target API level.

You will be able to request an extension to November 1, 2025 if you need more time to update your app.

All of the latest Qt versions support Android 15 already so in case you receive this warning, you need to download new Qt release using Qt Maintenance tool or your favorite distribution channel, potentially update your Android Manifest and rebuild your application. Not only will your application get support for Android 15 but also for Android 16.

Edge-to-edge support

Next requirement from Google Play Console concerns display cutouts such as the ones for front-facing camera module in your display. This has been brought as a requirement to Android SDK version 35 aka Android 15. You can read more about it over here.

Video taken from developers.android.com

To resolve it with Qt you need to update your app to one that supports Android 15 and you can read more about SafeArea support in our blog post.

16KB page size support

Latest requirement from Google Play Console concerns the support for 16KB page sizes. Official announcement is available here. Since Android 15, 16KB pages can be turned on in Developer options of your Android device while they might be automatically on on Android 16. The idea behind 16KB pages is that applications will have faster startup times, improved battery usage and system startup will be quicker.

16 KB Google Play compatibility requirement

Starting November 1st, 2025, all new apps and updates to existing apps submitted to Google Play and targeting Android 15+ devices must support 16 KB page sizes on 64-bit devices.

To bring this feature to your application, you will have to rebuild your application with one of the Qt versions that support Android 15. Check below for the breakdown of the versions.

Upgrade paths

Let's take a look at Qt for Android and Qt Quick for Android versions and their support for Android versions, including Long Term Supported (LTS) versions.

6.5 LTS

Android 6 - 15
Will receive no new Android version updates
16KB pages support will be available with 6.5.11 in November 2025 for commercial customers (due to LTS)

6.8 LTS

Android 9 - 15
Android 16 support will be available with 6.8.5 in October 2025 for commercial customers (due to LTS)
Android 17 support will be available in summer of 2026, if Android 17 is released in early summer 2026
16KB pages support will be available with 6.8.5 in October 2025 for commercial customers (due to LTS)

6.9

Android 9 - 15
Android 16 support will be available with 6.9.3 in late September 2025
16KB pages support will be available with 6.9.3* in October 2025
Will receive no new Android version updates
*FFMPEG is still not 16KB page ready, so if you need that recommendation is to use 6.10.1

6.10

6.10 is set to be released in October 2025
Android 9 - 16
Supports 16KB pages out-of-the-box
Will receive no new Android version updates

The guidelines for selecting supported Android versions for each Qt release were previously outlined in the post titled "Qt for Android Supported Versions Guidelines". Qt releases will continue to support the LTS versions of the Android NDK.

At the moment, Android 9 (API 28) is 7 years old and according to API Levels it is deployed on around 3.2% of the devices. This will percentage will likely continue dropping but some of our users have shared concerns that Android TV devices still use it and that TVs equipped with Android 9 might stay on the market for a few more years. We currently plan to retain Android 9 as the lowest supported SDK until Android 10 and later market share covers 90%, latest guesstimate to be until Qt 6.13. which is set to be released in spring of 2027.

View full post