Andy Walker / Android Authority
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TL;DR
- We have managed to get the Play Store’s upcoming download management feature working ahead of release.
- The feature will let users pause and resume app downloads without canceling the download.
- We’re also sharing a demo of the feature so you can see how it works.
Google is working on a useful new Play Store feature. We recently spotted a work-in-progress option that lets users pause and resume app downloads at will. At the time, the feature wasn’t functional. However, Google has been working on it, and this time, we finally managed to record a demo of the feature in action.
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Digging through the latest version of the Google Play Store (v53.0), we spotted the pause/resume feature once again. This time we managed to get it working on our test device with some tinkering.
Right now, when you start downloading an app from the Play Store, you only have the option to cancel the download.
However, with this new feature, you’ll see a “Pause” button. Tapping it will pause the download and give you the option to “Resume” it. The built-in download manager in the Play Store will also show paused downloads, so users can resume them directly without first searching for the app again.
Check out the feature in action below:
Allowing users to pause and resume downloads could make app installs easier to manage, especially if they want to prioritize one app over another or stop a large app from draining their cellular data plan. By pausing the download, they can resume it later when connected to Wi-Fi.
Unlike the last time we spotted this feature in development, it now seems to be fully working after some tinkering. So Google could start rolling it out in a future update soon. However, as with any Google update, there’s always a chance the rollout will move very slowly. We will keep an eye out for further changes in the Play Store app’s code and update you as we learn more.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
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