One of the easiest ways to free up storage on Android devices is to uninstall unused apps. You open up the app drawer, you look for apps that you don't use, you hit uninstall, and boom, free storage. But, Google doesn't want you to completely uninstall apps and forget about them.

To solve this issue, Google has announced a new app archiving feature for Android apps. This feature will allow users to free up storage space by shrinking down the size of apps by 60% without completely uninstalling it. This is done through a new APK type Google has developed for Android apps. Once you hit restore, the app comes back to its original size.

Archiving is a new functionality that will allow users to reclaim ~60% of app storage temporarily by removing parts of the app rather than uninstalling it completely. An archived app will remain on the device and can easily be restored to the latest available compatible version, whilst preserving the user data.

This feature will be enabled by default for the developers who compile their apps. Google says the feature will come as a part of the Bundletool 1.10 version which will be available later this year. To opt-out, developers will have to manually edit some files which will then allow the users to completely uninstall the app in one tap, and not archive it. We expect Google to reveal more information about this during its I/O 2022 event later this year.

Via: The Verge