Android is hailed to be a ‘mature’ OS when compared to its iOS counterpart. However, even the most mature have space to grow and improve. And, it looks like Google will enable a new trick to free up space on your smartphone. There is rumored to be a new feature ‘app hibernation’ that will free up storage space by deleting temporary files from unused apps. However, the feature hasn’t made an appearance in either of the two publicly available Developer Previews.

According to the folks over at XDA-Developers app hibernation feature is present in a leaked build that they obtained. It will free up storage space on your phone by deleting temporary files from unused apps. Notably, an APK teardown can predict upcoming features but it does not confirm their existence. These features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.

Google introduced “auto revoke permissions” with the release of Android 11 Developer Preview 3 that revokes an app’s permission if the app hasn’t been used for a couple of months. App hibernation is said to be building on that feature. The company seems to be expanding the “unused apps” concept with the new feature. It will not only be revoking permissions for unused apps but will also clear up temporary files to free up storage space.

The publication says it activated a new “Unused apps” section on the “App info” page for every application, and it contains a new “remove permissions and free up space” toggle. After hibernating a few apps, the “unused apps” page appeared under Settings > Apps. This page will show apps that haven’t been opened in a few months with a description that will say permissions are revoked, notifications are stopped, and temporary files are removed if an app hasn’t been used for a few months.