Google has confirmed it should discontinue Android Prompt Apps by December 2025, a transfer that’s unlikely to affect most customers because of the characteristic’s restricted adoption. Prompt Apps allowed customers to check out components of cellular apps with out putting in them, providing a sooner and extra light-weight expertise.
Launched in 2016 and rolled out in 2017, Android Prompt Apps aimed to scale back friction for customers participating with digital providers. When a consumer clicked on a appropriate hyperlink, the Google Play Retailer would load a light-weight, non permanent model of the app — below 15MB — permitting instant interplay with out taking over a lot house or time. This was particularly helpful for providers like information readers, media platforms, and e-commerce apps, with early adopters together with Vimeo, Want, and Ilta-Sanomat, a Finnish newspaper.
Regardless of its sensible advantages, the characteristic noticed minimal developer assist. One main limitation was the requirement to create a separate “instant-enabled” model of the app that met strict measurement and dependency constraints. Trimming apps all the way down to 15MB proved to be a technical problem, particularly for these constructed with complicated libraries. This complexity finally deterred widespread adoption.
The choice to close down Prompt Apps was first noticed by a developer utilizing the canary model of Android Studio, the place a tooltip indicated that assist for Google Play Prompt will finish in December 2025, together with removing of associated APIs and improvement instruments within the Android Studio Otter Function Drop. Android Authority has confirmed the presence of this message, though Google’s official documentation has but to be up to date.
Given its low visibility and restricted use, the removing of Android Prompt Apps is anticipated to have little affect on the typical consumer. Whereas it as soon as confirmed promise as a bridge between app and net experiences, the dearth of developer engagement made it a low-priority characteristic in Google’s evolving cellular ecosystem.
As Google continues to streamline its improvement instruments and platforms, the retirement of Prompt Apps displays a shift towards extra sensible and extensively adopted applied sciences, particularly in an atmosphere the place full app installations stay the usual consumer choice.
