Here’s a first look at Android 15’s built-in app archiving feature

Flagship phones these days have enough storage to easily hold hundreds of Android apps, photos, videos, and other files. However, not many people buy high-end phones, and even those who do usually end up buying a base model that offers less storage space. Uninstalling apps you rarely use can free up a lot of space, but it can cause headaches when you have to reinstall and reinstall them. Fortunately, this won’t be much of a problem in Android 15, as you’ll be able to archive apps you don’t use instead of uninstalling them.

In early 2022, Google introduced an app archiving feature that they said would allow users to reclaim around 60% of the storage space occupied by an app. It works by “removing parts of the app instead of completely uninstalling it.” This feature takes advantage of the split nature of the Android App Bundle format that Google Play uses to distribute apps. When developers generate an Android App Bundle for submission to Google Play, Google’s developer tools dump an additional APK installation file called an “archived APK”.

What is an archived APK anyway?

An archived APK is just a shortened version of the base app that is installed when Google Play archives the app. The archived APK is incredibly small, containing only the original app icon (with the download logo on top) and code that allows Google Play to restore the original app when the icon is tapped. Since the archived APK has the same signature as the original app, it can be installed on the original without deleting data.

App archiving currently exists as a feature of the Google Play Store, not Android itself. This means you cannot archive or restore apps from Android settings. It also means that other Android app stores have to build their own user interface and implement app archiving. In comparison, iOS’s app offloading feature is housed directly in the OS’s built-in settings menu.

Enable archiving of apps on Google Play. Source: Google.

While digging into the Android 14 QPR2 beta last month, I discovered indications that Google is working on adding OS-level support for app archiving. I even managed to discover an “archive” and “restore” button in the Settings app. However, after some more tinkering on the latest Android 14 QPR3 Beta 2 release, I was able to fully enable Android’s built-in app archiving feature.

How will app archiving work for Android 15?

In the video embedded below, I first open the Uber app on my Google Pixel 8 Pro to demonstrate that I’ve set it up and sign in with my account. Next, I open the Uber app info page to show that it takes up 387MB of storage. I then tap the “archive” button, which overwrites the Uber app with the archived APK (the resulting app size is not shown in the video, but is reduced to 17.64MB, a ~95.4% reduction). Finally, I tap the Uber app home screen icon (tapping “back” on the app info page would also work) and wait for Google Play to download and install the original app again. Once I do that, I launch the Uber app to show that I’m still logged into my account and that none of my data was lost during this process.

Android’s built-in version of app archiving will not only allow you to archive apps manually, but it also lets you choose whether the OS will automatically archive apps you don’t use often. If you turn on “manage app if not used” on the app info page, then the OS will remove permissions, delete temporary files, stop notifications, and finally archive the app if it hasn’t been used for a while.

Android 15 can automatically archive apps you don’t use often.

While I’ve demonstrated Android’s app archiving feature working with Google Play, there’s nothing stopping this from working with other Android app stores. Other Android app stores just need to support the Android App Bundle format and be able to handle the android.intent.action.UNARCHIVE_PACKAGE intent sent by the OS when the user taps the archived app icon or the “restore” button in settings. The OS sends an UNARCHIVE_PACKAGE intent to the app’s “record installer”, which in this case is the Google Play Store.

Hopefully, more Android app stores will add support for app archiving now that Google is building them into the OS. Speaking of which, while I was able to activate this feature in the latest Android 14 QPR beta, it’s highly likely that Google won’t roll it out until Android 15. That’s because quarterly releases of the platform usually never introduce major changes that could affect app developers, and this is one feature that will affect app store developers.