Good news if you frequently migrate from one smartphone to another. As per a new report by XDA, Google engineers are working on the “Install Hints” feature for speeding up the installation of important apps on new Android phones.
These days smartphones with new features are being launched left, right, and center. So, this gives us several options to choose from and also tempt us to change our smartphone.
I, personally, buy a phone after full research and stick with it for a couple of years. However, there are many frequent buyers who switch from one smartphone to another in quick succession.
For them, it could be a very tedious task to migrate entire data from the old phone to the new one. Especially if they are switching from one brand to another. Although there are apps that provide seamless migration, the entire process requires several steps and some of your time.
This task is time-consuming as all your older apps, get installed one-by-one, and need manual input for signing in. Fortunately, Google is working on making it easier to sign into apps on new devices.
Additionally, Google is also working on the new “install hints” feature, which would help you to install your most important and used apps as quickly as possible on a new device.
The Install Hints feature works behind-the-scenes to speed up the bulk restore process
As spotted by XDA Recognized Developer luca020400, Google is working on this new “Install Hints” for Google Play Store to speed up the bulk restoration process.
Play Store will then decide which compiler filter to use for dex2oat for bulk installing new apps during the setup process on a new device.
According to XDA, Dex2oat is a compiler that creates compilation artifacts that the Android Runtime loads upon installation. This ultimately helps in speeding up the loading times of the apps. Basically, Dexopt optimizes dex files upon installation.
Moreover, we believe it won’t be a tough task for Google Play Store to hint certain apps for installation. It will take a cue from your history of app installation and usage, and can determine which apps you use most frequently.
The pre-installed Play Store would then notify about the important apps. This would eventually help in prioritizing apps during bulk installation.
For example, based on your Play Store history, if you use WhatsApp Messenger a lot, then Play Store will pass on a flag to the compiler. It would let it prioritize WhatsApp over other apps.
Note that the commits have not yet been merged. So, it would be difficult to say for sure when these changes will make their way to Android. In fact, Google may also have further changes to the code.
If everything goes smoothly, we could see this feature in action with the next year’s Android 12 operating system.