Android, here’s how Google wants to make apps faster

Google has announced a new way to make apps for Android devices faster: what it is and how App install optimization works

Making apps for Android smartphones and tablets faster. This is the goal of Google, which is ready to launch the new "App install optimization" in its Play Store. With this method, devices will install only the parts of apps that users need most, thus increasing their speed.

The parts to be installed in apps will be determined according to usage statistics, so Google will collect data worldwide anonymously on how users use Android apps. Most importantly, it will know if only certain features of those apps are used rather than others and which ones. By obtaining this information, Google will allow only a partial version of the app with the most frequently used features to be installed from the Android Play Store, while the remaining part with the full features will be downloadable at a later time, thus saving space in the smartphone's memory and gaining in speed of execution.

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Android, smaller and smaller apps

In recent years Google has focused its work on reducing the size of Android apps, thanks to the optimization of the code and the resources that must be downloaded on the device. The goal is to allocate as little memory as possible to applications, so as to always guarantee the space needed by the device for a good speed of execution of processes.

Now the Mountain View giant is preparing to launch a new initiative to further lighten devices that use the Android operating system. Directly in the Google Play Store will come the App install optimization option, literally App installation optimization. Users will be able to decide whether to install only a partial version of the app, with the functions that might be most useful to them, so as not to weigh down the device and make it run faster. In case a user needs to use other features of the app as well, he can always download the full app from the Play Store.

App optimization: how Google collects data and which ones

In order to implement the "App install optimization" option for Android and determine which features are the most used to be included in the partial version of the app to be downloaded, Google will need statistical data on the use of the app. For this reason, Google will need to access data about the most used functions of users who have downloaded an app from the Play Store.

The data, the Mountain View giant assures, will be collected anonymously: no personal information such as the name and email address of the Google account present in the Play Store will be collected by developers.

Google thus reassures users that outside of the type of most used functions of a single downloaded app, no content present on the device or information about other installed apps will be collected. Once the app usage data is obtained, it will be analyzed to spot trends and identify the parts of the app that are most important to most users.

Android, what will the fastest apps look like?

At the moment, Google has not defined in detail what the fastest Android apps will look like, nor what the partial versions will be. One can speculate that there will be a download priority system that applies on a feature-by-feature basis. For example, a social app used only to look at posts might not include the ability to upload photos and videos at first. Or a messaging app used primarily for sending text messages might require a second download to download the video calling feature. In order to know the results of this initiative, we just have to wait for Google to implement it in the Play Store from the next versions that will be released.