Android’s 16KB Page Size Explained: Flutter Migration Made Simple

What Even Is Page Size?


In operating systems, memory is divided into chunks called pages.


  • Old standard: 4KB pages → small chunks, more overhead.
  • New standard: 16KB pages → bigger chunks, fewer lookups, faster access.


Why Google cares:


  • App launches: up to 30% faster.
  • Battery use: ~5% lower during startup.
  • Camera startup: ~5–7% faster.
  • System boot: ~1s faster.


Here’s what you need:


  • Android Gradle Plugin (AGP): 8.5.1+
  • Gradle Wrapper: 8.5+
  • NDK: r28+ (older ones can’t align binaries for 16KB correctly)
  • Flutter: 3.32+
  • Android Studio: Narwhal 2025.1.3+ (earlier versions may show false 16KB warnings)


Update gradle-wrapper.properties


distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.13-all.zip


Update Android Gradle Plugin in build.gradle


plugins {
  id "com.android.application" version '8.12.2' apply false
  id "org.jetbrains.kotlin.android" version "2.2.10" apply false
}


Point to the New NDK


android {
  ndkVersion "29.0.13113456 rc1"
}


Clean Build Process


# Clean previous builds
./gradlew clean  

# Rebuild with new configuration
./gradlew assembleRelease


Verification


Download check_elf_alignment.sh script here


Place it in the root of your project, then make it executable:


chmod +x check_elf_alignment.sh



./check_elf_alignment.sh app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk