You got to the Google Play Store to install new apps, so color us surprised to find out it’s now suggesting you delete apps if you’re running low on storage.
Basically, if you try to install a large app when you’re running low on storage, a pop up will prompt you to delete apps you don’t use often, listed in order of size. That’s helpful for people who don’t know how much space their apps are taking up, but media files are likely just as big of a culprit.
For that, Google links you to your phone’s storage settings, but as Android Police – which first spotted the feature – points out, it would be nice if Google suggested uploading your media files to the cloud. It would also be neat if the Play Store allowed you to manage your apps before you hit critically low storage, but better this than nothing.
That said, we haven’t been able to replicate the feature ourselves just yet, so it might not have rolled out to everyone. We assume it’s just a matter of time, but we’ve contacted Google for more information and will update this post if we hear back.
The Play Store's Uninstall Manager Intelligently Suggests Apps That Could Be Uninstalled To Clear Up Space
by Phil Oakley
Apps are getting big - that's one thing no one will deny. With some games reaching more than a gigabyte of space - LEGO Star Wars on my Nexus 6P is 1.17GB - it's becoming an issue for phones with less storage capacity than the more high-end offerings. To that end, Google is introducing an uninstall manager to the Play Store, nine months after Cody discovered its existence in an APK teardown.
We don't know how long this has been live - Google could have just flicked the switch on it, or maybe others have seen it in the past as well. We can't be sure. It works by suggesting a user uninstalls apps that have not been used for a while, because they're taking up space which could be used by other apps or games. It also displays how much space each unused app is using, and how much is needed for the thing that the user wants to install. These aren't the only potentially large files on a device, though, with videos, pictures, music, and downloaded files also taking up valuable megabytes. While the Play Store links to Storage Settings, where these files can be removed, it doesn't suggest uploading files to Google's cloud storage options, such as Google Drive, Photos, or Play Music.
This is, then, a good tool for people who have devices with comparatively small amounts of storage space.
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