Android 12 includes auto-hibernate feature for unused apps

Phone storage has always been a precious commodity, but a new feature coming in Android 12 may help alleviate the burden of managing your phone’s available space.

Android 11 introduced an “auto-revoke” feature that autonomously revoked privileges (e.g., access to user location, read/write access) for apps that had gone unused for three or more months. According to some exploration in an Android 12 development build, XDA Developers claims that the upcoming version of Android will take automatic revocation a step further.

The build allows the system to automatically “hibernate” apps that have gone unused for three or more months. This essentially clears the app’s temporary files and cache from the phone’s storage in addition to revoking privileges. App data appears to remain on the device, so the storage freed through the process is minimal. Still, any storage given back to the user (particularly those with low-end handsets) is a nice gift.

It should be noted that iPhones and iPads have had a similar feature since iOS 11 (2017). Apple’s iteration, dubbed “offloading,” deletes apps automatically if they haven’t been used for a while. Offloading retains user data for affected apps, similar to Android 12’s implementation.

It’s unsure at this point if the auto-hibernate feature will make its way into Android 12, as XDA was using a newer build than the currently available developer preview.

What are your thoughts about Android 12’s potential auto-hibernate features? Let us know in the comments.

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