Chances are if you’re finding yourself constantly deleting old photos and videos as well as frequently uninstalling apps that you don’t use anymore, you’re running out of storage space on your smartphone. It can be quite a hassle, especially if you cheap out on storage to get a higher performance device. Well luckily for you Android users out there, uninstalling apps to free up space could soon be a thing of the past.
In a new post on the Android Developers blog, Google is introducing to the world called auto archive. Basically, to reduce unnecessary uninstalls and to help users successfully install new apps, Google’s new auto archive feature will automagically free up to nearly 60% of an app’s storage space without needing to remove the app itself or any of the user data associated with the app.
It will require you to opt into the feature for now, and once you have opted in, infrequently used apps will be ‘partly removed’ from your device to save on space. However, this will not take away the app icon itself from your home screen, nor will it delete your data. As such, if you were to tap on the app again, it’ll quickly redownload the app and then you can continue where you left off as though nothing happened—as long as the app itself is still on the Google Play Store of course. Archived apps will have a cloud icon on them indicating that a reinstall is necessary.
If you want to opt into this new auto archive feature for yourself, you should know though that there’s no reason to do so unless you absolutely have to. Only when you’re close to running out of storage will you be given the option to opt into auto archive. When you try and install a new app while low on storage, a pop up window will appear prompting you to turn on auto archive. If you do but later change your mind, you can still change your preferences in Settings.
Auto archive also benefits app developers too. At the moment, only developers who use the Android App Bundle to publish their apps will be able to add auto archive to their products. If you do allow your app to be archived though, users will be less likely to see it among their uninstall suggestions. Overall, Google believes auto archive can both help users and developers by increasing user device storage space and decrease the likelihood of apps being uninstalled.
