According to the latest report, Google Play has announced an opt-in “auto-archive” feature that automatically frees up to 60% of the storage space taken up by an app WITHOUT completely uninstalling the app and removing all its data. The archived app can be easily reinstalled at a later time.
When a user opts-in to the “auto-archive” feature, infrequently used apps will be partly removed from the device to save space. The app icon and app data will be preserved. When the user taps the app icon, Google Play redownloads the app and the user is back where they left off.
Users can opt-in to “auto-archive” by trying to install an app when the device is out of storage. They’ll see a pop-up window (as seen in the screenshots of the first tweet) asking them to opt in.
As we explained last year, app archiving uses the new “archived APK” format which is generated by bundle tool. Bundletool is used to generate APKs from Android App Bundles, hence app archiving is only available to developers who upload AABs to Google Play.
App archiving started slowly rolling out to some users with Google Play Store version 33.4, while the auto-archive feature was first mentioned in the December 2022 Google System Updates changelog as being part of Google Play Store version 33.5. App archiving will soon become available on Android TV and Google TV as well.