Google will soon let you free up 60% space on your phone with archived apps

Google is designing a new tool as part of the Android ecosystem, which may help users reduce the amount of clutter in their phones and free up storage space. The company calls this archived Android packages, or archived APKs. The basic idea behind this feature is to help users with loads of unused apps to reduce the load on their phones – without needing to fully remove the apps in question.

The process will require developers to implement it from their end, thereby adding the feature where apps can be archived. However, the same will also be implemented by Google on its customer facing Android end, which will likely see a feature added to Android phones for the same. Google says that the idea is that users often download numerous apps, which are used very rarely.

In such cases, apps can take up a surprising amount of space on phones over time. This in turn can reduce the amount of available space on phones, slowing devices down and causing conflicts in terms of installation of updates and so on. However, users may often not want to uninstall certain apps from their phones and lose all the app data from their phones.

With archived APKs, Google states that once an app is ‘archived’, no user data will be lost, and the app will be put on a standby mode of sorts. This means that users will likely be able to remove the app visibly from their phone, freeing up almost 60% of the space that each app takes up on a phone. The compressed version of the app will retain some of the core files, and the crucial user data that is linked to the user on the app.

Over time, most users end up installing hundreds of apps – many of which may not be used frequently. With archiving, users should be able to reduce this overall app load on their phones, which in turn can cumulatively free up a good amount of space on their phones.

There is no specific timeline for when this feature will be introduced, but Google says that the archiving feature will be rolled out by the end of 2022 from their end. Closer to date, we should also be able to see how this feature will be implemented, and the same could be a part of the upcoming Android 13’s feature set.