Smartphone storage has gone up from mere megabytes to gigabytes, and beyond. But still, that can still be not enough.
People do almost anything with their phones. From browsing the web to activities on social media platforms, playing games, sending messages and emails, taking photos and shooting videos, buy things online, and many many more. The more activities users think of doing with their phones, the more apps they need to install.
And those apps can take up lots of space.
Although companies are making smartphones and tablets with more storage than ever before, developers of apps keep on updating their apps to include more and more features.
As a result, sometimes, unnecessary bloat happens.
To solve this kind of issue, Google announced 'App Archiving'.
What this App Archiving does, is essentially removing all the parts of an app without removing the data that’s specific to the user.
In other words, it only removes the APK part of the app and whatever is installed alongside it, but stores whatever users have done with the app.
The feature works by generating a new type of app package called archived APKs. They’re smaller than typical APK packages, and they preserve only the user data until an app gets restored.
In a post on its Android Developers blog, Google explained that App Archiving could help users reclaim up to 60% of the storage space on their devices.
Google has worked in bringing down ever-growing size of more complex apps the Android platform using App Bundles.
And this App Archiving feature is built on top of that.
But where App Archiving shines brighter, is its ability to bolster app retention.
This is because with App Archiving, archived apps are not uninstalled.
Users may download apps they wish to use. But after one try or a few, they stop using them, and refrain from uninstalling them.
As a result, those installed apps occupy free space that could be used for something else more important.
Those users may not want to completely uninstall some of the apps they downloaded, thinking that one day, they may need them. App Archiving should help alleviate those concerns by letting users tuck these apps away if they're facing storage constraints, and prevent "unnecessary uninstalls."
"One of the main reasons users uninstall apps is to free up space," write Google’s Lidia Gaymond and Vicki Amin, Product Managers at Google Play. "To prevent unnecessary uninstalls and help users get more out of their devices, we started working on [this] new feature."
This kind of space saving concept isn't new in the industry.
Previously, Apple has introduced the 'Offloading,' a feature to archive unused apps starting iOS 11.