Google to bring new feature to help save space on Android phones

Google is currently working on a tool, which will allow Android users to “archive” apps to help free up space on their device. The company claims that archived APKs are much smaller and preserve user data until the app is restored.

The company in a blog post explained that any app with the feature will allow its users to partially uninstall it, shrinking the app down by about 60 percent without removing it completely.

Google will do so by creating a new type of APK file, which it is calling as archived APK. These archived APKs will be comparatively much smaller than regular APKs, and will continue to store user data until a user decides to restore the app back to its original version.

The company is currently in process of developing the new feature and will make it available to developers with the release of Bundletool 1.0. Developers not wishing to use the feature can simply choose to opt-out of the archived APKs feature. Google has also revealed that the feature will not be functional until it is launched to the general public later this year.

While the company has revealed its future plans related to the upcoming archived APKs feature, it has not released any details on how the feature will present itself on Android. Many are guessing that it will show up alongside the uninstall option on long-pressing on an app icon. The feature will come in handy for many, especially people who have a lot of apps installed in their phones, but generally use a basic set only.

Archiving an app and then restoring it will be much quicker compared to completely reinstalling an app. It will also consume a lot less mobile data, battery, and space.

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