An unofficial GTA 5 Android port might be coming soon, but not for your new Pixel phone

Grand Theft Auto 6 is scheduled to launch next month, but a developer has already unofficially ported Grand Theft Auto 5 to Nintendo Switch. Now, it looks like this same developer is working on porting GTA 5 to Android.

A developer named mojso has confirmed on Discord that they’re working on an unofficial Android port of Grand Theft Auto 5. They previously ported the game to Nintendo Switch last month.

The developer also issued minimum system requirements for GTA 5 on Android. You’ll need a Snapdragon 865 chipset or better, 8GB of RAM, 65GB of storage, and Android 13 or newer. The creator says older Snapdragon processors can run the game, but they can’t guarantee smooth performance. Nevertheless, these are pretty modest requirements for an open-world action game, even if the game was originally released on consoles that are now 20 years old.

There’s also encouraging news for people with Exynos-powered Galaxy phones, as mojso says devices with Samsung Xclipse GPUs will be supported in the “first releases.” This includes the Exynos 1480 inside the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G. Furthermore, they note that devices with Mali GPUs will be supported at some point.

Unfortunately, there’s bad news if you have a newer Pixel phone, as the developer notes that Tensor chipsets with PowerVR GPUs will “never be supported.” That means you’re out of luck if you have a Pixel 10 or Pixel 11 series device. They also warn that MediaTek’s Helio chips won’t be supported. So you can forget about budget phones running GTA 5.

Keep your expectations in check for GTA 5 on Android

There are also a couple of reasons to be cautious of this release. For one, the Nintendo Switch port is reportedly based on source code from a 2023 data breach, and we’re expecting the same from the Android port. That means Take-Two and Rockstar Games will likely crack down on this project and platforms hosting it. So it might be tough to find a semi-reputable place to download the port when it finally comes out.

We’re also not sure about the developer’s track record or whether they’re using AI for this project. AI-assisted development has become commonplace, but there’s a huge difference between an experienced developer using AI and a newbie vibecoding a project. Experienced developers can verify the generated code to make sure everything works, the codebase makes sense, and that there are no bugs. But we’ve seen our fair share of vibecoded projects by people who don’t understand the generated code. This approach can result in performance problems and privacy/security issues. The vibecoded approach can also hamper long-term support and discourage contributions from other developers.

We’ve also seen reports online that a functional GTA 5 Android port has been released by a developer in China. But the apparent vibecoded nature and nebulous download links mean we strongly urge against downloading it. We’d recommend waiting for mojso’s release instead if you really want to try it. Still, GTA 5 on Android would be a major achievement and would be a great tech demo for modern mobile devices.