Android 15 finally seems ready to integrate options app storage at the system level. The new version of the green robot is still being developed Developer Previewbut important details are emerging about what he might propose.
It is therefore the functionality that allows you to archive apps. Not an absolute novelty, as archiving apps has been possible via the Play Store for a couple of years. The novelty consists in the fact that it will arrive at the Android system leveland therefore through the Android settings it will be possible to manage the stored apps, without going through the Play Store. The functionality will therefore also be compatible with apps installed from third-party stores.
The app storage feature is based on the fact that current Android apps include a scaled-down version of themselves. This is an apk included in the global apk, which provides an extremely basic version of the app: essentially it is included the icon (with the relevant download arrow indicating the storage status) and the download link of the entire app.
This is obviously necessary if you intend to restore the app after archiving it.
The video which you find below was created by the good guy Mishaal Rahmanwhich has already managed to enable the app storage feature in Android 15.
The video is one demonstration of how it will work: the button will be available directly from the page dedicated to the app in the Android settings Archive. This removes all files that are not necessary for storing the app, keeping only the basic apk that we described before. In practical terms, Rahman gives the example of the Uber app, which in its classic form takes up 387 MB, while in its archived form it takes up only 17.6 MB. A 95% reduction. Imagine doing this for all the apps you have installed but don’t use frequently.
The restoration of the archived app will always be possible from the Android settings, and it takes a few seconds for the app to be downloaded and installed again in its original form. Let’s hope the feature comes further optimizedso that the recovery process is also faster.
But it doesn’t end there, because in the new integration of Android system-level app storage will also come the possibility of archive automatically unused apps, a bit like with Android 14 it is possible to automatically remove permissions from unused apps for a certain period.
