Why your Android TV apps will soon take up less storage space

Google has announced a change to Android TV and Google TV that will ensure apps take up significantly less storage.

Android TV apps take up less space

Google will require developers from May 2023 to provide Android TV and Google TV apps with support for “application sets‘. This should ensure that apps for Android TV and Google TV take up much less storage space, and it’s secretly a very big improvement.

Lots of smart TVs – and Google too Chromecast with Google TV – often only have around 8 GB of built-in storage space. By comparison, if you buy a new Android phone now, you’ll in many cases get 128GB of storage. With real budget devices, it is often 64GB. Because Android TV and Google TV usually have to make do with limited space, users cannot install too many apps and games.

This in turn means that users should delete apps when the space is full and they want to use a new app. Not ideal and that’s why Google wants to (largely) fix this problem next year. According to the search giant, the developers do not devote much time to it: the transfer of a TV application would represent approximately three days of work.

Benefits of app bundles

So-called “app bundles” have long been mandatory for Android apps that you install on your smartphone. These packages bring many benefits. For example, apps become on average 20% smaller and if you archive them, you even save up to 60% on storage.

With the archive function, you don’t throw the apps away, but save them for later – without them taking up too much space. The functionality is built into the software of the TV itself. App bundles also optimize apps for the device you’re using them on.

We finished it android planet previously talked about the limited storage capacity of devices with Android TV or Google TV. This is how Google wants Android TV and Google TV device makers encourage you to integrate at least 16 GB of storage.

Remarkably enough, the search giant itself is not yet setting a good example, as both the Chromecast with Google TV and the cheaper Chromecast with Google TV HD only have 8 GB of storage. Google TV has had one for a while now practical function to quickly free up space.

→ Chromecast test with Google TV (HD): cheaper, but not less good