Users will be able to reduce the size of the app by up to 60% without losing data or preferences. It will work automatically when the mobile runs out of space.
The automatic archive of apps, an optional feature that lets you release up to 60% of the space they take up on a mobile device without totally removing them, has started to roll out on Google Play.
The method Google has chosen to assist users in freeing up memory on their devices—and on which it has been working for a year—is the application archive. Its purpose is to prevent you from having to uninstall apps, and instead remove only parts of them.
The function that allows applications to be archived has begun its deployment, as reported by Google itself in the Android Developers blog. Specifically, it appears in version 33.4 of the Google Play Store application.
This function must be enabled by the user before it may begin automatically freeing up to 60% of the memory space used by programs, “without removing the presence of the application or the data of the users of the device “.
As explained by Google, the automatic file will act on the applications that the user hardly uses, in such a way that the icon and the user’s personal data will remain on the device until the user needs them and updates them to the latest version, as long as they continue being available in the Play Store.
This is possible because it uses the new ‘App Bundle’ format, a system with which Google Play allows organizing into packages optimized for different device configurations and languages, which makes apps 20% lighter on average than their counterparts in APK and also faster to install.
Google makes it clear that the app file is only accessible for programs that use this format, precisely for this reason.