How Android update will let you use apps without downloading them

Google knows many people never get around to adding apps, because they have to download them.

So it has a new way.

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At its recent developer conference, Google announced Instant Apps, a way to download apps with one click, without having to go through the cumbersome process of downloading them to your phone.

Instead, if a friend was to suggest a feature on BuzzFeed in a chat window, for instance, Android users later this year will be able to click a link, and add portions of the app to their phone to see a video, photo, or some other source of information.

Google’s Ellie Powers suggested a potential use case: you’re late for a meeting, find a parking space, and the meter suggests paying with a parking app, but you don’t have time to download the app. Instead, you can click a link, add some of the app to the phone with one click, and pay the meter.

App developers will have to create future apps in modules to qualify for Instant users.

“The experience is totally seamless,” she says. “We can’t wait to see what you’re going to build, when your app is just one tap away.”

Both Google and Apple are locked in a heated battle for consumers, via apps. While Android has a bigger market share worldwide than Apple’s IOS, developers tend to prefer IOS, because Apple consumers are wealthier, and thus, spend more money on apps than the Android community.

Apple will address developers at its WWDC conference on June 13 in San Francisco.

At its developer conference, Google talked up the latest version of the Android mobile operating system, Android N, which will begin showing up on phones later in the year.

It features a split-screen option to show multiple apps at once, a quick switch option to move between two apps swiftly and the ability to customise notifications by priority.

Associated Press