Over the years of owning a phone, no matter whichgreat smartphone option out thereyou choose, your storage can get pretty cluttered. Google combats that with a variety of measures, including arecently introduced app archiving optionthat automatically reduces storage usage for apps you haven’t used for a long time. While you had to jump through some hoops to activate it in the past, Google is now rolling out a simple toggle for this on the Play Store.
Auto archiving was previously only available when you were already running low on storage, with a prompt appearing asking you if you’d like to turn the option on to save some space. As spotted byMishaal Rahmanon X (formerly Twitter) andAssembleDebugon Telegram, the auto archive option is rolling out to a lot more people. It sits in the Play Store settings underGeneral,where you can simply toggle it on and off. This makes it much easier to be proactive about storage usage, making it possible to keep all your most important apps on your device without them taking up as much space as they otherwise would.
The auto app archive utilizes Android’s App Bundle format, which allows app developers to only push the necessary files that your phone needs to it. This is meant to help save on bandwidth and storage already, but with auto archiving activated, your phone can downsize packages even further. Google says that you can save up to 60 percent of storage without losing any data and without having to uninstall the app. To open it again, your phone will have to download certain extra files, though.
Archived apps will still live on your home screen, but they will have a small cloud icon on them to depict that they’re not fully available for use. Archived apps will also show up in theManage apps & devicepanel in the Play Store under theManagetab. Here, you will find a newArchivedfilter, which you can turn on to show only archived apps.
The auto archive option is rolling out widely right now, with many people reporting that they first spotted it on Play Store version 37.4 and 37.5. It might be available on different versions, too, assuming that the toggle is rolling out as a server-side change rather than tied to a full app update.
Google also has another measure in store for apps that you haven’t used for three months. After that time frame, it will automatically remove permissions and stop them from sending notifications your way. This is meant to secure both your privacy and your battery, since these apps lose privileges that would allow them to run in the background. This is unrelated to archiving, though, and apps will remain fully ready to use locally.
