Almost 4 years after Apple required developers to submit apps as 64-bit, Google is also requiring developers to do the same, what does this mean for developers? A lot, as it turns out. Meanwhile, mobile video ad spend is continuing to rise and looks set to be the majority in just a few short years. Time to dive deeper.
Digital Video’s Continued Momentum
Mobile video ad spend will make a staggering 75% of all digital video ad expenditure by 2023 according to new research by the esteemed market research firm Frost & Sullivan. Additionally, video ads will account for over 20% of all digital ad spending full stop. That’s a lot of video ads and a lot of potential revenue for mobile app publishers.
“Mobile video ad spending, in particular, will account for 75 percent of digital video ad spend as advertisers, media companies, and publishers follow audiences away from traditional TV and desktop,” added Aravindh Vanchesan, Digital Transformation Industry Analyst at Frost & Sullivan.
These back up the results released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) which said that in 2018 alone, advertisers were expected to spend over $10 million on average for mobile and digital video ads, which if you’re keeping count (we are) is a 50% increase from 2016.
64 Bit Deadline Looms for Android Developers
With iOS 11, Apple made the bold step of phasing out support for 32-bit apps and forcing all apps to run on 64-bit. In December 2017, Google began to encourage developers to create 64-bit versions but didn’t say they’d enforce a deadline. Last week, that change, and Google has announced deadlines and details for how it plans to transition to 64-bit.
The move to 64-bit apps should improve performance on today’s modern 64-bit chipsets used in most mobile devices and increase app security as well. The deadlines Google game in the blog extend out quite a way though:
Starting August 1, 2019:
All new apps and app updates that include native code are required to provide 64-bit versions in addition to 32-bit versions when publishing to Google Play.Extension: Google Play will continue to accept 32-bit only updates to existing games that use Unity 5.6 or older until August 2021.
Starting August 1, 2021:
Google Play will stop serving apps without 64-bit versions on 64-bit capable devices, meaning they will no longer be available in the Play Store on those devices.This will include games built with Unity 5.6 or older.
Those deadlines seem ominous (if not close) but it’s important to note that this change does not apply to Wear OS and Android TV applications because they do not currently support the 64-bit architecture. Moreover, apps that do not target Android 9.0 or future versions of the operating system are also exempt from this requirement.
Google also explicitly stated that 32-bit support will remain in its current state and developers only need to submit a 64-bit binary alongside the 32-bit version of their application. This makes things a little easier, as does the restriction not applying to Android Wear or Android TV apps, but a lot of work remains ahead for Android developers.
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