Google Instant Apps rolled out to 500 million Android devices

Google Instant Apps are now rolled out to 500 million Android devices. Instant Apps were announced over a year ago at Google I/O 2016 and now finally are available on 500 million Android devices.

So what is a Google Instant App?

It is a feature which lets you use an app from the Google Play Store without even installing it. For example, if you click on a Vimeo link on your smartphone, the link will be opened on Vimeo Google Instant app from the Play Store with the need of installing it and once you are done watching it the instant app will close.

Two things happened:

1) You experienced an android application without installing it.

2) You saved the memory of your smartphone by using the Instant App version.

To give you a better idea, you can purchase stuff on Amazon Instant App without installing the app. This feature saves a lot of memory on your smartphone and let you use the apps which you do not want to install. This feature comes in handy if you want to test an app or need to use it for once.

However, the Instant Apps are not enabled for all applications by default. Developers have to enable Instant Apps as a feature for their apps and then users will be able to use them. Instant Apps are also beneficial for developers.

For example, Vimeo has seen an increased session duration by 130% with their instant app. And the customer conversion rates on the shopping app “Jet” has has increased by 27%. By sharing these stats, Google is encouraging developers to enable their app for Instant Apps and therefore enabled this feature for 500 million phones. The feature is currently available on Android 6.0+ devices. The support for Android 5.0 Lollipop devices will be added soon.

Here’s what the Product Manager of Google had to say on Instant Apps:

“Since our public launch at Google I/O this year, we’ve been hard at work expanding the number of supported devices and the availability of instant apps, so that users can run your apps instantly, without installation. We’re excited to announce that 500 million Android users now have access to instant apps across countries where Google Play operates,”

Image — Google