Rumor: Android 12 automatically compresses unused apps

Android 12 may automatically compress unused apps after some time to free up storage space. This is evident from commits in the source code of Android. Presumably, the first version of Android 12 will arrive sometime in the coming months.

The commits are about “app hibernation,” XDA-Developers reports. The feature references what Android 11 does with permissions; the operating system will automatically revoke it after some time if the user does nothing with the app. For example, apps should not continue to access the location in the background, for example, without the user still using the app.

The feature compresses the apk file of apps to take up less space on a smartphone’s storage. The option seems to be especially useful on phones with limited storage, such as the cheapest models and models with Android Go.

App snoozing was in a slightly different form in the Nextbit Robin smartphone from a few years ago. That phone uploaded unused apps to its own cloud storage, only to delete the app from the phone, while the user data remained. Users could then reinstall and use apps that had not been used for a long time by pressing the icon.

Google usually releases the first developer preview of a new Android version in the winter. Last year it was in February, the years before it was always at the beginning of March. It is unknown if that will also be the case this year.