Google is developing a service that will allow you to “archive” specific apps in order to save up space on your smartphone. Google writes in a blog post that any app that supports the functionality will allow you to partially uninstall it, reducing the program by around 60% without totally uninstalling it.
It accomplishes this by introducing a new type of APK (Android Package) known as archived APKs. These are the guts of an app that make it usable on your device. As Google notes, archived APKs are significantly smaller and retain all your data until you restore them to their original size. The capability will be accessible to developers with the Bundletool 1.10 release, but will not be usable until “later in the year” when Google makes it available to the general public. Additionally, developers can opt out of archived APKs, which Google discusses in the blog post.
There are no details yet on how the feature will show on Android — possibly alongside the uninstall option when you long-press an app’s icon. In either case, archived APKs appear to be ideal for anyone (particularly, me) who has a graveyard of rarely used apps and isn’t quite ready to let go (but also doesn’t want them to take up a tonne of storage space). Archiving and then restoring them should be significantly faster than reinstalling an app, and should consume significantly less mobile data when you’re not connected to Wi-Fi.
