For years, Google has been tackling the problem of Android apps taking up too much space on smartphones that unfortunately often run out of storage space. To do this, Google’s mobile OS had already started suggesting which little-used apps should be uninstalled a few years ago to free up space on a device.
If this information had a positive dimension for users, it forced them to make choices, by deleting an application that they might have preferred to leave on their smartphone. However, it proved fatal for many developers, who had to deal with a higher number of uninstallations, perhaps only because the user’s hardware did not have enough storage space.
This problem, which mainly affects entry-level and mid-range Android smartphones, is now history, thanks to a new feature launched by Google. Soon, Android may indeed be helping users free up space through archiving, a new approach that involves partially uninstalling apps rather than completely uninstalling them. Archiving makes it possible to empty an application, but to keep its user data intact and, above all, not to completely uninstall it. Google says archiving should allow users to temporarily recover around 60% of app storage.
Expected release in 2022
The archived app will remain on the device so that it can be restored, if needed, and brought back to life with all of the user’s data if and when the user wishes again. This is thanks to Archived Android Packages (APKs), which will be enabled in a future version of Bundletool – a tool that the Android Studio IDE, Android Gradle plugin, and Google Play use to create an app bundle and convert it to APK for devices. The latest version of Bundletool is 1.8.2, but the next version, 1.10, will offer developers who use app bundles the ability to archive data.
“Archived APKs are very small APKs, which preserve user data until the app is restored,” Google notes in a blog post for Android developers. Google notes that Android users won’t see the archive for at least a few months. Presumably he will then explain how the choice to archive an application works and appears on the screen. But developers can start creating archived APKs now.
Archiving should be both a popular feature for developers and useful for consumers who have filled their device with too many apps, but prefer not to delete them just yet. “Instead of uninstalling an app, users could archive it, i.e. temporarily free up space and be able to reactivate the app quickly and easily,” Google notes.
Source: ZDNet.com