You no longer have to wait for the application to finish downloading because the Play Store will soon support “Play as you Download” on all Android 12 devices.
- Play as you Download Features
- Available in games
- Play while still on Download
Waiting for the application to download can be a tedious task at times. And it appears that Google understands how users feel while waiting for an app to download. As a result, Google introduced the “Play as you Download” features in the Play Store in July of last year.
These features will allow users to open some games and apps from the Play Store while they were still downloading. And Google has finally announced that the feature will soon be available on all Android 12 devices after a long wait.
What is the purpose of the Play as you Download feature?
The “Play as you Download” feature allows you to play certain games while they are still downloading. This feature will be available on all Android 12 devices soon. Meanwhile, there are a few exceptions for this feature to work with the app.
There is no doubt that this cool feature that will make the user experience much better than before. However, this feature is dependent on game developers to work properly.
To make their apps compatible, Game developers must make certain changes such as placing critical gameplay files first so that playing while downloading is possible. But, these changes will take time. As a result, this feature hasn’t even been released for all Android 12 devices yet.
Is this a feature that is available on other game platforms as well?
This feature is somewhat the same functionality that has been available on other game platforms like PlayStation, Xbox, EA Origin, Activision Blizzard’s Battle.net, and others for years.
Meanwhile, Developers must include support in their apps and games which supposedly involves determining which files are required to open the app. But once it’s figured out, you’ll be able to open a specific app or game while the Play Store is still downloading.
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How does “Play as you Download Features” Works?
According to Google, the Play as you download feature makes use of Android’s Incremental File System-a “special-purpose Linux virtual file system that allows apps to run while their binaries and resources are being downloaded. Meanwhile, the Incremental File System is only available in Android 12. So, the minimum Android version required is Android 12.
When will these features be made available?
Google has announced that the “Play as you Download” feature will be available “soon” for all Android 12 devices. Unfortunately, there is no exact date announced for its release. And even if Google does turn it on, you’ll probably only be able to use it with a few games at first.
Meanwhile, some games may choose not to support the feature at all, particularly if the download size is already so small that it downloads in a matter of seconds with a reasonably fast internet connection. As a result, this feature is only available in games and not in other types of applications.
We will update this article once Google starts rolling out the “Play as you Download” features.
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