Dormant apps on your Android phone can take up space and also use unwanted permissions running in the background without you even noticing it. The latter was fixed in Android 11 in the form of a feature called ‘auto revoke permissions’ which automatically blocked app permissions for applications you haven’t used in a while. Now Google is expanding the feature to enable auto deleting of unused apps – not used for a certain period of time – since they take up space on the device.
As discovered by XDA Developers on their test device running the leaked build of Android 12, the upcoming feature hibernates the app and also deletes the associated temporary files. They occupy unnecessary space since most of the users never bother to delete them after installing.
The feature called auto-hibernate is present in the “Unused Apps” section in the Settings>Apps in the build that is confirmed to be newer than Developer Preview 2. In Android 11 the option toggle says “auto revoke permissions” while now as discovered it says “remove permission and free up space.”
This will be a useful addition for users who own a mid-level or entry-level device with limited storage – but for ones having higher segment phones it likely won’t make much of a difference. That said, having free space occupied by apps, you don’t even remember for a long while, is a wise option to take care of anyways.
It should be kept in mind that the feature was seen on the leaked Android 12 build, and whether or not it will make it to the Beta Developer Preview of the upcoming Android OS is not known. Will it make it to the final stable version of Android 12, is anyone’s guess for now.
