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Google’s latest Android upgrade turns games into truly immersive experiences

By Cosmin Vasile

Published: Mar 13, 2025, 10:48 AM

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Even less action-y games like Pokemon TCG benefit from Vulkan | Image credit: Google

Google has recently stepped up its strategy toward games. Just like many other big tech companies before it, the Mountain View search giant believes it can tap into the huge audience that loves to play games on any platform.

Today, Google announced it is transitioning Android to a modern, unified rendering stack with Vulkan at its core. The cross-platform API is a consistent upgrade to the standard OpenGL and allows developers to have more control over the graphics processing unit (GPU).

Vulkan is used in games to offer higher performance and more efficient CPU and GPU usage, which is very important for smartphones. More importantly, Vulkan unlocks advanced features for Android developers, such as ray tracing and multithreading for realistic and immersive gaming visuals.

One of the games that already benefits from Vulkan’s advanced features is Blizzard’s Diablo Immortal, which delivers amazing special effects thanks to the implementation of ray tracing.

Vulkan brings many advantages to game devs, including performance and visual upgrades | Video credit: Google

But even less action-y games may be able to take advantage of Vulkan. For example, thanks to the newly supported API, Pokemon TCG gets optimized graphics across a wide range of devices to ensure a smooth and engaging experience for all players.

Google will make Vulkan the default graphics API starting with Android 16. This means that games that are now running on OpenGL will use ANGLE as a system driver that translates OpenGL to Vulkan. However, developers are recommended to test their games on ANGLE starting this week to make sure that it’s ready for the Vulkan transition.

Also, Google announced partnerships with major game engines to make Vulkan integration easier. For starters, Unity 6 will now allow developers to configure Vulkan per device while older versions can access this setting through plugins.

Adjusting the phone and game’s performance based on the thermal state

Another under-the-hood improvement that will see gaming on mobile brought to the next level is an upgrade to the Android Dynamic Performance Framework (ADPF), which enables developers to adjust between the device and game’s performance in real-time based on the thermal state of the device.

For the unaware, ADPF has been specifically designed to work across a broad range of devices including the Pixel 9 family and Samsung Galaxy S25 series.

In addition, to being upgraded, ADPF will also provide better performance thanks to a new partnership with MediaTek. This means that only devices powered by MediaTek chipsets will be able to fully utilize ADPF’s performance optimization capabilities.

Developers can check Android vitals to ensure their games don't crash | Image credit: Google

Android developers will now be able to retrieve critical information about how their games perform on various Android devices via Play Console. The latter now includes a Low Memory Killers (LMK) tab in Android vitals where developers can see if there are any memory constraints that can cause their games to crash.

Google is bringing more PC games to Android this year

Last but not least, Google is launching a pilot program that makes it easier to port PC games to mobile. The new program promises to offer support starting from Android game development through publishing a game on Play.

The first games to make the jump from PC to Android are DREDGE and TABS Mobile, but Google also revealed that critically-acclaimed Disco Elysium will be coming to Android later this year.

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Cosmin, a tech journalist with a career spanning over a decade, brings a wealth of experience to PhoneArena. His expertise lies in brands like Samsung and Nokia, and he has a keen interest in innovative technologies. After a brief stint in PR, Cosmin returned to tech journalism in 2016, committed to delivering clear and objective news. When he's not writing or appearing as a guest on TV and radio shows, Cosmin enjoys playing RPGs, watching Netflix, and nurturing his passion for history and travel.