In an announcement by Chang Liu and Lidia Gaymond, Google Play product managers announced that an upcoming auto-archive feature would be introduced later this month. This feature has been added to make device storage management easier for Android users. As a result of this feature, there is less chance of unintentional app uninstallations, and users can install updated apps without hassle.
Developers who use the App Bundle to publish their apps can only use auto-archive for their apps. To increase the chances of your app appearing in users' uninstall suggestions, ensure that your app supports archiving.
If there is insufficient storage for an app to be installed, the device will prompt the user to enable auto-archive. Users can easily turn on auto-archive when opting in, freeing up space on their devices.
There are several reasons why people uninstall applications, but the most common is to free up space on their devices.
It has been customary to prompt users to manually uninstall apps when their device's storage nears capacity. This is so that they can make room for updated ones to be installed. Users can save up to nearly 60% of an app's storage space by using the enhanced auto-archiving feature, which allows the app to be deleted and the data is not lost when deleted.
There was a time when an app would automatically be recommended to be uninstalled when there was not enough space on the device. Android is getting access to the ‘archive’ feature that was worked on by the tech giant.
In addition to checking and removing unused apps manually from the phone settings, users can also remove them manually from their apps list. Despite this, the uninstallation of an application can lead to the data you entered into it being lost.
A user installing an Android app will receive a prompt to use the app's auto-archiving feature when the device's storage is running low, and the app is installed on the device. By simply turning on the feature, users can archive all apps no longer in use. They can also delete permissions, temporary files, and alerts created in the past.
Having app archiving enabled on your device will help you recognize when you lack storage. You can archive apps that you rarely use when it detects space shortage. Your device will automatically archive apps you do not use often if it detects that you don't have enough storage. Personal data will be saved if you download the app again.
In addition to allowing users to partially remove infrequently used apps from their devices, the auto-archive feature allows the user to preserve the icon for those apps and the data the user has entered for them. It is a visual indication of archiving that the user can see cloud icons on their device when it comes to Archived Apps. As long as the app is still available on Google Play, users can re-download and use the archived app from where they left off by tapping the icon, provided that they wish to continue using the app from where they had left off.
The process of opting into auto-archive is easy, and the user can do it with just a few clicks. When the user attempts to install a new app on the device, and the device is out of storage, a pop-up window appears asking if the user would like auto-archiving to be enabled. The user can opt-in to auto-archive the unused apps on their device if they wish, allowing the phone's storage to be freed up so that the updated application can be installed.