Android phones will soon get a new ‚auto-archiving‘ feature that’ll let you reduce app storage space without deleting them.
If you regularly run out of storage space on your Android phone, some help is on the way – Google has just announced a new auto-archive feature for Android apps.
The new feature, announced on the Android Developers Blog (opens in new tab), promises to let you free up nearly 60% of an app’s storage space, without deleting the app or your user data. Developers will need to add the feature to their apps, but once that’s done you’ll start to see auto-archiving appear as a new option.
This will mostly come in the form of a pop-up window, which will show up when you try to install a new app on an Android device that’s out of storage. If you opt in, any unused apps will be auto-archived to free up space for the new app.
You’ll be able to tell which apps have been auto-archived thanks to a cloud icon with a downward-facing arrow (below), which will appear over the app’s original icon.
