As some of you may know, I have one published paperback, eBook, and audiobook with a second paperback/eBook completed for released in January, 2026. The first book has won multiple awards, including the Readers' Favorite Gold Medal Winner in the Non-Fiction - Music/Entertainment genre!

Those books don't deal with mobile app development, but there's a ton of baggage that I could reference to support a third manuscript about Android and iOS odysseys.

It takes some effort along with luck to pivot from a very successful first career into a productive second one. That's what I did.

With all of that in mind, here's how 2025 has presented some screwy Android challenges behind the app coding screen.

You've Got Mail

The predictable Google nastygrams stream into my inbox between the nice reviews that some of you have posted to Google Play. Here's one that was dispatched in June.

"24 of your apps are affected by Google Play's target API level requirements." This one is actually normal. Every year, developers are pushed to upgrade to a new application programming interface for Android standardization and security enforcement. This request is cool. I just have to be prepared to get my fingernails dirty when the API changes break some of my code.

About 30 days later, this note came in from the little green robot's central command center. "8 of your apps are affected by Google Play's 16 KB page size requirements." Oh boy, what a hoot! "From May 1, 2026, if your app updates do not support 16 KB memory page sizes, you won't be able to release these updates."

This change is similar to when 5G was introduced but many connected devices (microwave ovens, other appliances, and automobiles) only supported 3G.

I won't go into the technobabble, but the mandatory 16 KB fix is not difficult, especially for developers that use the integrated development environment software Android Studio for apps. We are told app performance on mobile phones will improve with the 16 KB hocus-pocus magic.

Third-party terror exploit in the bits

Second half of 2025 fun continued with this pleasantry from Google about 5 of the apps we have in the Play Store. I'll condense the super long "developer update." "Your app *** requires a critical security fix due to a vulnerability recently identified that could affect games and applications built in Unity **** and later for Android."

Google did add that "there is no evidence of any exploitation of the vulnerability, nor has there been any impact on users of customers." Users of customers? 

Another mind-blower. We use Android Studio, Unity, and B4A (Basic 4 Android) to support all of our app development. Their logos are up top. Unity promises to update their cornucopia of IDE integrated development environment versions to fix this app crisis. They maintain support for many versions of Unity.

Directives, Fixes, and Courtesy

Handling the stream of unexpected written encounters requires patience, wisdom and analytical experience. After thirteen years of app development, I stopped panicking years ago when the uninvited flood gates of woe would pour into email messages one after another.

Up until this point, I have been able to handle them all. More in the months to come about navigating the mobile app hamster wheel. By the way, the notes from Apple for our iOS apps are much more polite!