Home
News
You are here

Google Play develops space-saving app install optimization

By Doroteya Borisova

Published: Mar 17, 2021, 7:18 AM

0comments

Apps Google

Google Play develops space-saving app install optimization

Google has taken a welcome initiative to save us precious time and smartphone storage in future app downloads. Even with the constantly growing capacities of modern smartphones (coupled with the death of the SD card), storage is by no means infinite. As well as saving space, however, Google's latest improvement should also allow apps to install and be up and running faster.

Google Play's App Install Optimization feature will focus on understanding which features of an app a user opens first, and will prioritize them during app installation. Up to now, every app you've downloaded from Google Play has come in one giant bundle, all features and ins and outs included—even if you aren't likely to use most of them. This means apps often take their sweet time downloading, as well as take up more space than is necessary on your phone. App by app, this can add up to a bit of frustration.

Google's App Install Optimization will:

Speed up installation for apps from Google Play
Reduce the amount of time it takes to open and run apps
Reduce strain on your device’s CPU, battery, and storage

The new optimization will download apps feature-by-optional-feature rather than throwing the whole thing at you at once, ensuring that you will have a much shorter wait time before you can use the app. After you are inside the app, it will save all additional features you open to your phone. How will Google Play know which features to download first? With App Install Optimization activated, Google remembers which features you as a user tend to choose first. This way, the optimized feature selection is crowdsourced from everyone who uses the app.

There is no need to fret about privacy regarding this optimization improvement, as the only information an app will source is strictly your prioritization of that app's features. It will not remember names, e-mail addresses, phones, ID's, or anything like that—it will not be able to look beyond the app itself into your phone, either.

While the optimization improvement is not up and running yet, you can already view the official support document. You just have to remember to turn on App Install Optimization if you want to make use of Google's new feature. The way to do this is: