Add support for Android

[mhsmith]

What's the problem this feature will solve?

Android has been an officially supported Python platform since Python 3.13. More recently, its wheel tag format was added to the PyPA specs page, and that format is now accepted by PyPI (e.g. see here).

pip should be able to install these wheels in two contexts:

• Directly on an Android device, e.g. via the Termux app.
• Through an app packaging tool such as Briefcase, using a command like pip install --platform android_21_arm64_v8a mypackage.

Describe the solution you'd like

To avoid repeating the confusion around adding iOS support (#13053), I think the best sequence would be:

• Merge Add support for PEP 738 Android tags packaging#880
• Make a packaging release.
• Update pip's vendored copy of packaging.
• Merge remaining changes to pip:
  • Add support for Android tags #13303

Alternative Solutions

Briefcase and Chaquopy currently use a forked version of pip that's several years old. They therefore lack many of pip's recent features, such as the new resolver.

Termux and Kivy don't support Android wheels at all, and compile everything from source, which is much slower.

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow the PSF Code of Conduct.

[ichard26]

Sounds good to me. Although this is already implied, it's worth stating that the pip core team will be entirely incapable of maintaining Android support. Thus, any bug-fixes or improvements will need to come from external contributors (like yourself, thank you!) who know the Android platform. This is also the case for iOS since no one on the core team uses pip on a smartphone.

Anyway, let's wait until packaging lands the Android support changes.