In its latest official blog post in March, Google said it was developing a tool for Android that would allow users to “archive” certain apps to help free up space on their devices. Google explained that using the archive feature can free up to 60 percent of storage space, but the feature does not uninstall apps or delete users’ personal data, but rather “slims down” the phone by deleting certain functional components of the app and archiving them.
Google recently brought v33.4 update to Google Play Store, which officially provides the app archiving feature. Instead of disappearing from the desktop, the archived app icons will have a cloud download symbol in the icon.
The company has also created a new APK format to do this, which it officially calls ArchivedAPKs. According to Google, ArchivedAPKs are much smaller than traditional APKs and will save all of the user’s data until the user restores it.
