Android instant apps are here for Buzzfeed, Periscope, Wish and Viki

Android instant apps are here as a pilot project in partnership with select applications. The instant apps work by delivering small bits and portions of the app over the air, and are executed on the phone without the need to install an application. Only the portions of the application currently required by the user are downloaded on the smartphone. The Android Instant App program is now being taken for a test drive with a small number of developers. The application partners include Buzzfeed, Periscope, Wish and Viki. The application categories are wide ranging for the testing phase. Buzzfeed is a news web site, Periscope is the video broadcasting application from Twitter, Wish is a shopping application and Viki delivers Korean visual content. The experience is expected to be expanded to more applications and users in the near future. The SDK is going to be available to all developers soon. Developers can start making their applications ready for instant apps. Instant apps have some reduced functionality from regular applications installed on the smartphone. Instant apps cannot access external storage on the device, discover or interact with applications installed on the device, or change any settings on the device. Instant applications do not currently support push notifications, and can only be started through activities that support App Links. [caption id=“attachment_315703” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Android Instant Apps being announced at Google I/O 2016.[/caption] Android Instant Apps make it easier for developers to get users for their apps through just a web link. The hybrid approach falls somewhere between applications installed on the system, and web apps that can run through a browser itself. Android instant apps supports a modular design, where the functional portions of the app that are immediately useful to the user are downloaded on the fly. Android instant apps were first announced in Google I/O 2016 .