Android 15 could add built-in support for app archiving

I’d wager that a lot of you’ve got at the least some Android apps put in that you simply not often use however can’t convey your self to uninstall as a result of it’d be a trouble to set them up once more. These apps may eat up a whole bunch of megabytes or perhaps a few gigabytes of your treasured cupboard space, which poses an issue when you’re low on storage. When you’ve got an iPhone, you need to use the app offloading characteristic in iOS to uninstall the app with out deleting your app knowledge. Google Play gives an identical characteristic on Android units referred to as app archiving, however in contrast to on iOS, it isn’t baked into the OS. That might change in Android 15, although, as Google is engaged on baking its app archiving options proper into the OS.

For a little bit of context, Google first introduced its app archiving characteristic again in early 2022 with the promise that it might let customers reclaim roughly 60% of the cupboard space taken up by an app by “eradicating elements of the app reasonably than uninstalling it fully.” The way in which app archiving works underneath the hood is kind of intelligent. Each time builders opt-in to this characteristic, the instrument that takes their Android App Bundle submission to generate the APK set up information then creates a further APK referred to as an “archived APK.” This archived APK is a closely stripped-down model of the app that’s pushed to units at any time when an app is archived; its sole goal is so as to add a house display icon that customers can faucet to set off Google Play to unarchive the app.

Whereas Google’s app archiving characteristic appears just like Apple’s app offloading characteristic, there are a number of key variations. First, there’s no strategy to archive an app on Android manually. Apps can solely be archived by the Google Play Retailer app, supplied you decide into the auto-archive characteristic. Which means you may’t decide and select which apps you wish to archive and which you wish to preserve. Second, app archiving is a part of Google Play, not the Android OS. This implies which you could’t archive or unarchive an app from inside Settings. It additionally implies that each app retailer that desires to help this characteristic would wish to construct its personal UI for archiving and unarchiving.

Now, clearly, you may’t simply sideload apps on iPhones (at the least not but), so our Apple associates don’t have to fret about fragmentation in how the app offloading characteristic is carried out. Nevertheless it’s straightforward to put in third-party apps with out the Google Play Retailer on Android, so there may be advantage in unifying the app archiving expertise throughout app shops. That’s precisely what Google is seeking to do by integrating the Play Retailer’s app archiving characteristic into Android 15.

Whereas I used to be digging via the Android 14 QPR2 beta, I found quite a few hints that app archiving help goes to be built-in into the Android OS. The primary trace I discovered was the introduction of latest take a look at instructions in Beta 2 that permit builders archive or unarchive their apps. The characteristic didn’t work in Beta 2. Nonetheless, in Beta 3, I managed to get it largely working via a little bit of tinkering. After enabling the app archiving characteristic, a brand new archive button was added to the app information web page for particular person apps. Tapping this button triggered an app archival, altering the button to say “restore” and swapping the app’s authentic icon with one which has a obtain icon overlaid on prime.

Nonetheless, after I tried to revive/unarchive an app, nothing would occur. It is because the characteristic isn’t totally working for the time being. Tapping on the restore button or the archived app icon ought to ship a request to the app’s “installer of document” (the final installer of the app, which on this case could be the Google Play Retailer) to unarchive the app. That request consists of the android.intent.motion.UNARCHIVE_PACKAGE intent (which the Play Retailer can deal with) together with the package deal identify of the app that must be unarchived.

Whereas the native app archiving characteristic wasn’t working for me in Beta 3, it’ll probably be fleshed out in a future launch. Google probably intends for this native app archiving characteristic to launch with Android 15, on condition that the quarterly beta releases by no means introduce main adjustments that affect app builders. When the characteristic does launch, it’ll probably combine with Android’s app hibernation characteristic launched in Android 12, as I observed that the “unused app” web page was up to date to incorporate a point out of app archiving.

We’ll want to attend for the Android 15 preview program to kick off to verify if this characteristic makes it into the following launch.