Later this year, you may not have to fully uninstall an app to free up space on that aging phone of yours. Google announced today that it has been cooking up a way to archive apps on your phone, making it easier to restore them with user data at some point in the future.
On the Android Developers Blog, Google announced the new feature, saying that it would allow you to reclaim around 60% of the app storage taken by an app. That way, certain parts of the app would remain on your device to let you restore to a newer version of the app later on. And again, your user data would stay there too.
Google sees more than just the benefit of users being able to free up space and later restore the app, though. They think this will help developers deal with fewer uninstalls and also lower friction for their users to get apps back.
Google is preparing to release the tools for developers to start working on implementing archiving of their apps, including a new type of APK called an archived APK. They will even start making archived apps, though no one can access or use them until later this year.
Cool or nah?
This would be good for apps I use once a year or so like vacation scheduling. However, when it comes to completely UNWANTED BLOAT I want to be able to completely REMOVE IT!!!!
Currently I have an ADB app (easier than ADB in general) that allows me to remove apps for user ZERO = 0, but as we all know this doesn’t truly remove the app from the phone as it will come back when doing a factory reset.
this has been a great feature on my old 64GB iPad pro and should also benefit Android devices with low storage
Nah. This makes every app the same kind of bloatware that baked-in apps already are. Don’t need it.
Good idea, IF it works on bloatware too – I’d love to reclaim that space!
Long overdue, iOS has had this forever. It better be automatic based on time last used.
Nextbit Robin?
I will just uninstall but thanks. Anyone else actree?
this sounds incredibly convoluted when they could just let us hide stuff in the app drawer
Exactly! This would be perfect for like airline apps when I just need it for a trip but then won’t use it again for 6 months.
And Bingo was his name-o
Yes! I use stuff like rental car and airline apps a few times a year BUT it’s nice to have it there “just in case”. Same with a couple of games I infrequently play as well.