React Native and Google Play's 16 KB page size rule: 0.77 and how to check the build

What the Play Console message means

Google's page size guide says that all apps targeting Android 15 (API level 35) and higher must support 16 KB memory page sizes on 64-bit devices on Google Play, and that from February 1, 2027 updates without 16 KB support can't be released. Play Console shows a compatibility warning for a bundle that doesn't support them.

Google Play already requires new apps and updates to target API level 36 (Google's target API rule; Wear OS, Android Automotive OS, Android TV and Android XR have lower levels). So for a phone or tablet app, the 16 KB rule applies to every update that contains native code.

The warning is about native libraries, the .so files for the 64-bit ABIs arm64-v8a and x86_64. A library fails when its LOAD segments are aligned to 4 KB instead of 16 KB, or when it is stored uncompressed and does not start on a 16 KB boundary in the zip. Every React Native app for Android has native code: the runtime, its JavaScript engine (Hermes or JSC) and libraries such as fbjni, Folly and Yoga ship as .so files, and so do community libraries with native code.

Which React Native version supports 16 KB pages

The React Native 0.77 release post (January 21, 2025) says that with 0.77 React Native is ready to fully support 16 KB page sizes, and that developers can test and ship apps for 16 KB devices with it. Upgrade to 0.77 or later. Google's guide and the vendor pages linked here were read on 15 November 2026.

What an older React Native build looks like

We ran Ship Check on EteSync Notes 1.7.0, an open-source React Native app from F-Droid whose libraries were built with NDK r17c to r21d:

• 23 of its 44 64-bit libraries are not 16 KB aligned: 19 React Native libraries and libc++_shared.so for x86_64, and three libsodium libraries.
• 29 of the 44 fail Google's RELRO rule, arm64-v8a React Native libraries among them, although those are aligned.

ship-check-by-engine.webp

Find the library that fails

1. List the native libraries in the build. In a macOS, Linux or Git Bash terminal: unzip -l app-release.aab | grep '\.so$'. In Windows PowerShell: tar -tf .\app-release.aab | Select-String '\.so$'. In an AAB they are under base/lib/<abi>/, in an APK under lib/<abi>/.
2. Look at the arm64-v8a and x86_64 folders; the rule is about 64-bit devices. Match each file name against the table below to see whether it comes from the engine, a plugin or an SDK.
3. Check how each library is aligned. Ship Check (below) checks all of them at once. In Android Studio, Build > Analyze APK... shows an Alignment column that warns about every library that is not 16 KB aligned.

Ship Check groups the React Native libraries under React Native and names libsodium, MMKV and Sentry. A library it does not know is listed by file name.

Fix it

1. Upgrade React Native to 0.77 or later.
2. Update every library with native code, and the SDKs they bundle.
3. Build the release AAB again and check it.

Check the build before you upload it

1. Open Ship Check and drop the .aab or .apk on the page. It is free, runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded.
2. Read the 16 KB results. Every 64-bit library is checked for LOAD segment alignment and for Google's RELRO rule, and each failing library is named with the engine, plugin or SDK that ships it where Ship Check knows it. A library it does not know is listed by file name.
3. On a build server, run Ship Check CLI: node shipcheck.mjs app-release.aab --fail-on=error. It exits with code 1 when a check fails, so the pipeline stops before the upload. Add --date 2027-02-01 to see the build as it will be judged on that day.

Alignment is not the only test. Google's page also has a rule for the GNU_RELRO segment: if it ends inside a 16 KB page that also holds writable data, the app crashes with a segmentation fault (SIGSEGV) on a 16 KB device when that data is written. Google says this typically happens with libraries built with NDK r27 or lower without the 16 KB flags.

Ship Check reads what is in the file. It cannot see your Play Console, and a passing report does not guarantee that Google Play accepts the app.

The same rule in other engines

• Unity
• Unreal Engine
• Flutter
• Godot
• Solar2D
• Apps with NDK code, Kotlin or Java