Update aws-crt-java native Libraries for 16 KB Page Size Compatibility on Android

[balazsbarany]

Describe the feature

Description
The aws-crt-java includes native libraries that are incompatible with the 16KB page size requirement for Android apps. This causes issues when using libraries like https://github.com/aws/aws-iot-device-sdk-java-v2/ (depending on aws-crt-java) for Android projects.

Specifically, at least the libaws-crt-jni.so library doesn't meet the alignment requirements. See the artifact analysis of an Android project using https://github.com/aws/aws-iot-device-sdk-java-v2/releases/tag/v1.27.0.

Background
As outlined in the Android Developer Guide on Page Sizes:

To support 16 KB devices, apps that use native code should complete the steps that are outlined in the following sections. If you update to AGP version 8.5.1 or higher and NDK version r28 or higher, and use 16 KB-compatible prebuilt dependencies, then apps are 16 KB compatible by default.

Additionally:

Check the output lines to ensure that the load segments don't have values less than 214. If any load segments are 213, 2**12, or lower values, you'll need to update the packaging for those libraries, then recompile your app and retest by following the steps in this section.

Source

Observations
Using llvm-objdump to inspect the libraries, the following alignment issues were identified for libaws-crt-jni.so:

LOAD off    0x0000000000000000 vaddr 0x0000000000000000 paddr 0x0000000000000000 align 2**12
LOAD off    0x00000000004b4938 vaddr 0x00000000004b5938 paddr 0x00000000004b5938 align 2**12

Request

The following would be much appreciated:

1. Please update the aws-crt-java library to use the 16 KB device-compliant native libraries.
2. After the above, please get in touch with the maintainers of https://github.com/aws/aws-iot-device-sdk-java-v2 to release a version with the updated version of aws-crt-java to support the Android project in a compliant fashion.

Use Case

We want to update the IoT layer of our application to rely on https://github.com/aws/aws-iot-device-sdk-java-v2 instead of the deprecated https://github.com/aws-amplify/aws-sdk-android.

[sfod]

Thanks for reporting this, we'll plan the work for the nearest future.

This causes issues when using libraries like https://github.com/aws/aws-iot-device-sdk-java-v2/ (depending on aws-crt-java) for Android projects.

Could you provide more details on what issues exactly does this cause for you? Asking so we won't miss anything.

[balazsbarany]

Could you provide more details on what issues exactly does this cause for you? Asking so we won't miss anything.

Starting from November 1st, 2025 the 16 KB page size compatibility requirement will be a must-have to issue updates to our applications. Without it, Google Play will reject them. You can find more information about this at https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/05/prepare-play-apps-for-devices-with-16kb-page-size.html.

[sfod]

Yeah, I should have phrased my question more specifically, my bad.
We saw the Google announcement, and that November 1st, 2025 is deadline, so we'll take care of 16KB page size by that time. I just want to know if this causes any issues currently - do you maybe see runtime issues, or performance degradation, or an app simply doesn't compile?

[balazsbarany]

...do you maybe see runtime issues, or performance degradation, or an app simply doesn't compile?

Not really. One of our applications is running with the latest IoT SDK since quite some time without any issues.

[sbSteveK]

Changes required for 16 KB Page Size compatibility on Android have been added to aws-crt-java. v0.38.10+ will meet the requirements. aws-iot-device-sdk-java-v2 and its Android build will use the updated aws-crt-java android library in v1.27.2+.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

[balazsbarany]

Thanks for the updates. I can also confirm that the changes were effective. 👍