- F-Droid is adding support for Android 15’s app archiving feature, making it the first third-party app store to support the new capability.
- App archiving is a feature that lets you reclaim storage space by deleting an app’s installation files without deleting its data.
- The Google Play Store already supports app archiving, but Google opened it up to third-party app stores in Android 15 by making it a system-level feature.
If your phone is running out of space, an easy way to free up storage space on Android is to uninstall some apps. However, it’s a hassle to uninstall apps that you might need later, which is why it’s better to archive them. Archiving an app lets you reclaim storage space by deleting the app’s installation files without deleting its user data, but Android won’t even let you archive the app unless the app store that installed it in the first place can restore it. Android 15 makes it possible for third-party app stores to support app archiving, and F-Droid appears to be the first one to take advantage of this new capability.
If you’re unfamiliar with F-Droid, it’s one of the best places to download third-party apps without the Google Play Store. F-Droid offers a plethora of open source apps that don’t ask you for a single penny, each crafted with love by independent software developers. While F-Droid may not have all of what many consider to be the best Android apps available right now, you will find a whole lot of hidden gems that you can’t get on Google Play.