We all know the feeling of getting the “Low storage” message on our phones. It’s never fun, and it means that sacrifices need to be made. However, this might not be the case for the next version of Android. According to a new report, Android 15 could bring native app archiving to the operating system.
The thought of offloading apps to save storage space is nothing new. In fact, if you remember the Nextbit Robin, that was a phone whose standout feature was its ability to archive apps. The Google Play Store currently archives apps automatically if you don’t use them for a while. This is a very useful feature, but it does have its limitations
For starters, this feature is tied to the Google Play Store. So, you won’t be able to archive apps that you got from third-party stores. Also, you’re not allowed to selectively archive apps. Apps are only archived if you opt-in to have them archived if they remain dormant for a while. Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to go to an app and archive it right then and there
Android 15 could bring native app archiving
Since we are still a while away from seeing anything official pertaining to Android 15, you’ll want to take this cautiously. At any point, Google could make drastic changes to what it’s working on. Along with this story, we also got the news that Android 15 could mandate apps to be edge-to-edge.
This app archiving feature was discovered by Mishaal Rahmen. He was digging through the latest QPR for Android 14, and he discovered some code alluding to a native app archiving feature in Android 15. Basically, when you archive an app, Android will delete major parts of the app from your device, and leave a highly stripped-down version on your device. You will still see an app icon on your screen. When you want to reclaim the app, your phone will redownload the data that’s been deleted and it will allow you to pick up where you left off.
This is a much better option compared to uninstalling the app and reinstalling it. Once you do that, you’ll have to set everything back up again. Also, you may lose whatever progress you’ve made if you were playing a game.
Since this could possibly be a native Android 15 feature, it seems likely that you will be able to archive your apps even if you did not download them from the Google Play Store. This could open this feature up to many more apps.
We all know the feeling of getting the “Low storage” message on our phones. It’s never fun, and it means that sacrifices need to be made. However, this might not be the case for the next version of Android. According to a new report, Android 15 could bring native app archiving to the operating system.
The thought of offloading apps to save storage space is nothing new. In fact, if you remember the Nextbit Robin, that was a phone whose standout feature was its ability to archive apps. The Google Play Store currently archives apps automatically if you don’t use them for a while. This is a very useful feature, but it does have its limitations
For starters, this feature is tied to the Google Play Store. So, you won’t be able to archive apps that you got from third-party stores. Also, you’re not allowed to selectively archive apps. Apps are only archived if you opt-in to have them archived if they remain dormant for a while. Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to go to an app and archive it right then and there
Android 15 could bring native app archiving
Since we are still a while away from seeing anything official pertaining to Android 15, you’ll want to take this cautiously. At any point, Google could make drastic changes to what it’s working on. Along with this story, we also got the news that Android 15 could mandate apps to be edge-to-edge.
This app archiving feature was discovered by Mishaal Rahmen. He was digging through the latest QPR for Android 14, and he discovered some code alluding to a native app archiving feature in Android 15. Basically, when you archive an app, Android will delete major parts of the app from your device, and leave a highly stripped-down version on your device. You will still see an app icon on your screen. When you want to reclaim the app, your phone will redownload the data that’s been deleted and it will allow you to pick up where you left off.
This is a much better option compared to uninstalling the app and reinstalling it. Once you do that, you’ll have to set everything back up again. Also, you may lose whatever progress you’ve made if you were playing a game.
Since this could possibly be a native Android 15 feature, it seems likely that you will be able to archive your apps even if you did not download them from the Google Play Store. This could open this feature up to many more apps.