If you thought Google would hide a few key features Android 15 before the official release, you were wrong. The internet is doing its usual thing, this time detailing a new feature called App Archiving, coming soon to an Android 15 Android phone near you.
Detailed by Mishaal Rahman, Archiving apps allows you to free up space on your device without having to delete the app entirely. Instead, when archived, the OS will remove everything except the app icon and the code to restore the app via Google Play when the icon is tapped. Apparently the app has been removed from the device, but here it is Magic occurs.
An example is provided that shows application archiving in action. Uber was used, a rather large application that weighs almost 400 MB. After the archiving process, all that is left is 17.64 MB, which is a huge reduction in the storage space used on your device. However, when the app comes back, it shows that all app data has not been deleted and you don’t need to sign in to the app again.
As of now, it’s detailed that the feature is powered by Google Play, but at launch it should work at the OS level, which means we expect it to launch as a feature of Android 15. Furthermore, Android 15 is expected to be able to automatically archive apps that don’t use often.
It is noted that the feature that is supported in the OS will not be limited to work only with Google Play. It could also work with other Android app stores. This is a big bonus for some users.
I definitely have some apps that could handle archiving, like Uber, that can only be used while traveling. This will be handy.
// Android Authority