Google’s Android 12 Will Auto Hibernate Unused Apps

Even though Google’s does not release its source code for new Android versions before the release for Pixel phones is ready, we surely get a glimpse at some of the upcoming features. One of the features that have been expected from the upcoming Android 12 release is app hibernation. The feature will allow freeing up storage space by detecting temporary files of the unused apps.

This feature has not made any public appearance in either of the two publicly available Developer Previews, we can confirm the code for the feature is present in the leaked build recently found. With the release of Android 11 Developer Preview 3, Google’s has also added a new feature “auto revoke permissions.” This feature automatically revokes permission if the app hasn’t been used for a few months.

With the stable release of Android 11, the company also shared a few details about the feature. It includes a screenshot that shows a notification informing the user when an app’s permission has been revoked. The screenshot shows the “unused apps” Settings page with the list of apps that have been auto revoked the permissions.

Google’s seems to be expanding the “unused apps” concept in the Android 12 update with the new app hibernation feature in tow. Apart from this feature, the new update will also clear up temporary files to free up the phone storage. When compared, the Android 11’s “auto revoke permissions” toggle can be found to be under the Apps permissions subpage of the apps “App Info” page. The location change is also making sense as the new toggle deals with both the permissions and storage rather than permissions.