Android 8.1 Oreo might come with some interesting space-saving features

If you’re on an Android device and are constantly running out of disk space, the latest update to the Android operating system just might come to your rescue.

[caption id=“attachment_3947723” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Android 8 Oreo[/caption]

As noted by XDA-Developers, a recent update to the Android 8.1 Oreo AOSP framework includes a feature that will free up some disk space on your Android device when you’re running low.

When you’re running out of storage space, Android will determine the inactive applications on your device and free up space by reducing their cache sizes. According to XDA, applications that have been inactive for a specified period of time are considered for this “downgrading”. The update will not delete the inactive app and neither will it delete associated data. Reducing the cache size will, theoretically, only slow down the application startup the next time you launch that app.

Of course, this is the Android ecosystem we’re talking about, and while it’s nice to see that Google is working on these features, but till Android device manufacturers take the trouble to update their devices in time, it’ll be a long time indeed before we see Android 8.1 with these space-saving features arrive on mainstream Android devices.

At last count, Android 8.0 Oreo, which was released in August, has an install-base of just 0.2 percent. At 32 percent, Android 6 Marshmallow still powers the majority of the Android market. Worse still, these space-saving features must be enabled by the manufacturer.