App installations are so five minutes ago. At dnesday’s I/O keynote, the company showed off Android Instant Apps—apps that run without even being installed.
The demo was a “sneak peek” at a feature that will be rolled out over the next year, according to Ellie wers, group product manager on the Android team. It won’t even require Android N—it will work all the way back to older llyBean phones; the onstage demo was performed with a phone running KitKat.
“ want to make it easier for users developers to connect,” wers said. “For users to access a wider range of apps, for developers to reach more people. th the b, you can just click on a link l on a webpage. That’s one click, l in a few seconds. at if you could run any app on one tap? That’s what we’re working on.”
If someone sends you a link to an app—wers used Tasty as an example—clicking the link will take you right into the app itself—without installing it. ay will fetch only the piece of the app that Android needs, right now. The app was able to open so fast because it was split into modules, she said, downloaded only what was necessary. Users are also presented with an opportunity to formally install the app itself, later.
wers also showed off how the technology could be used with shopping. She looked for a camera bag on a page of search results, the resulting link actually loaded a simple app authored by B&H. The app is even already signed in, so that the user doesn’t even have to enter a credit card.
Imagine tapping a parking meter downloading the appropriate app— being ready to pay, too.
“It’s going to take me two taps, not two minutes,” wers said.
wers even showed off a parking app where she could simply tap the phone against a parking meter the NFC tag could load the appropriate parking app. “l I have to do is choose how long to park,” she said. “I’m already done.”
Developers simply need to modularize their apps to get them to work, wers said. It could take less than a day of work. at wers didn’t talk about, however, was whether there will be security protections built in, or how consumers will be able to avoid loading apps that are pushed upon them by spammers or other bad actors.
