Android 15 is still months away, but one of its new features has recently been spotted. According to reports, users will be able to archive an app to preserve space on their smartphone rather than entirely uninstall it.
This app archiving option is presently accessible in the Google Play Store for apps downloaded from the marketplace. However, there is no manual control, and apps downloaded from other app marketplaces are incompatible with it. This is why an operating system-level function in Android 15 might be far more valuable.
Mishaal Rahman, writing for Android Authority, uncovered the code strings for this feature in the newly published Android 14 QPR3 Beta 2 update. Rahman was able to identify and enable the “archive” and “restore” settings, allowing him to use the feature even though it had not been formally added.
He then attempted to archive and restore an app and discovered that the feature automatically saved all user data. Users will apparently not have to login in or worry about losing any of their in-app data when they archive it.
In his experiment, Rahman archived his Uber app, which took up 387MB of data. After archiving, the app’s size was reduced to 17.64MB. A cloud icon appears on top of the app icon. Clicking on the app again started the downloading and installation procedure.
Once installed, the cloud icon disappeared. Surprisingly, accessing the app revealed that his account had already been logged in, and all of his stored locations were present.
This functionality is presently accessible in the Google Play Store and can be accessed by navigating to the profile icon > Settings > Automatically archive apps. However, as previously noted, this setting will archive rarely used apps downloaded from Google’s app marketplace. This will not allow users to manually archive an app, nor will it support apps downloaded from third-party sources.
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Such a function is useful when a smartphone’s storage is running low and there is an urgent need to free up space to install another app or record high-definition images or videos. Instead of deleting apps and having to reinstall them and set up their accounts (and maybe losing some in-app data), users can simply archive select apps.
Notably, Apple already has this feature in the iPhone, which is called App offloading. However, this works automatically and does not provide users with a granular choice over which apps to archive.
