This is a move to help you conserve space on your Android device. When you download an app on Android, you will usually have to download additional files in order for it to work. Not only that but the app would natively produce additional data that picked up storage space as you use it. That’s just how it works. However, there are apps that you don’t use anymore, but you want to conserve that data. When you delete an app, its local data is deleted. However, this is where app archiving comes in. What app archiving will do is save that data on your device and delete the app. So, when you reinstall the app, the data will still be there, and you’ll be able to pick up where you left off.
We see the Android app archiving feature in the new leak
Twitter user @Assembleddebug posted some screenshots of this feature before its official unveiling. According to the tweet, the feature isn’t completely functional, but he was able to get it working enough to archive an app. He was able to archive the Google News app. The software saved the 36MB of data and deleted the app created. After archiving, we see that the app icon remains on the phone, however, you will see a transparent download icon over it.
— Kim (@AssembleDebug) October 11, 2022 Tapping on the icon will re-download the app and install it. Once installed, the app will pick up right where it left off. What’s neat is that you can access your archived apps right from the Google Play store. When you select an app in your app library and go to the additional options, it will give you the option to archive it. You will also see a new “Archived” tab in the library view. Since this feature is somewhat functional, it gives us hope that it will be launching relatively soon. At this point, we don’t really know when to expect it.
