Credit: Lucas Gouveia / Android Police
By
Conor Cawley
Published Mar 1, 2026, 8:00 AM EST
Conor has been staunchly in favor of Android since graduating to a smartphone from his hot pink Motorola RAZR. In fact, he'll gladly ruin a friendly dinner in service of lambasting Apple devices to those that use them, which he admits is one of his worst personality traits. After being talked out of sports writing by someone working for ESPN Chicago ("it's the same thing every year, it's like purgatory"), Conor decided that the ever-evolving world of tech would be a much more interesting topic to focus on. Now, more than half a decade later, he covers everything from new devices and big conferences to small startups and business trends. In addition to freelancing for Android Police, Conor is the Lead Writer for Tech.co, a tech publication focused on helping small businesses grow and succeed. He's worked with the likes of Forbes, WeWork, General Assembly, Chase Bank, Tech in Motion, and SXSW, among others, through Tech.co in service of making tech a bit more accessible. Conor also can't properly pronounce the word "colloquially," but honestly, who can?
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There's never enough storage on a smartphone. All the high-quality videos and images you take every day can add up to a lot of space, making it hard to take as many as you want after your device is full.
However, while videos and images often represent some of the largest storage users on the average device, the biggest users of storage are often the apps you download to access various services.
This can be brutal for those that only have 128 GB of storage on their devices, like me and my Google Pixel 10 Pro.
The good news is that Android 16 added some handy new features that can substantially reduce the stress your apps put on your storage, especially the ones that are only used once in a blue moon.
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Posts 1 By Sydney ButlerArchive your apps to save space
Who needs all these apps anyway?
There are maybe five to ten apps you use every day. Another dozen or so that you use on a weekly basis, and the rest of them are once a month at best.
The average smartphone user has around 80 apps installed on their device at a given time. That's a lot of potentially wasted space that could go to even more high-quality videos and images of memorable moments in your life.
That's where this new Archive feature comes in handy. By archiving your apps with a single button push, you'll save huge swaths of storage on your device without impacting your everyday smartphone experience.
What do I lose by archiving apps?
Honestly, not much
If you've been struggling with storage shortages over the years, this Archive feature might sound too good to be true. So, what's the catch?
Archiving an app has an impact on its functionality on your device. The process removes the software, permissions, and temporary files from your device and turns off notifications. Basically, if you use the app on a consistent basis at all, don't archive it.
However, archiving an app retains the app icon and data on your device, so as soon as you restore it to your device, you can start where you left off in regard to the information available.
Which apps should I archive?
Make sure you keep the important ones
Finally, discovering a means to alleviate the stress on your smartphone storage is exciting, but don't go archiving your entire app library just yet.
There are some obvious candidates for this kind of purging, and we want to give you some suggestions to get you started.
- Seasonal apps: Apps that you only use at a certain time of year, like holiday shopping, fantasy football, or travel apps, are ripe for the Archive feature.
- Large games: It's nice to have a library of games at your disposal, but they take up so much storage. The Archive feature can fix that while still maintaining your save data.
- Healthcare/government portals: These portals are great for storing important data, but you don't need to access them regularly for anything, so you can feel comfortable pressing the Archive button on this one.
How to archive apps in Android 16
More storage is just a click away
After you've decided which apps are ready for the archives, it's time to start pulling the trigger. The process isn't terribly complicated, but it never hurts to get a little step-by-step guide, right?
First, go to the Settings menu. Then, click the Apps option, and you'll see your most recently opened apps. You likely don't want to archive any of those, but you can click the See all apps button to get an alphabetized list of your downloaded apps.
When you're there, click the app you want to archive. At the top, next to the Uninstall button, you'll see the Archive button. Give it a click and the app will be immediately archived.
You don't get a warning message beforehand, so make sure you know what you're doing before tapping Archive.
To restore the app, click the icon in your app library or on your home screen — which will feature a tiny cloud download logo alongside the name — and it will bring the app back with all your data.
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Free up phone space without guesswork: subscribing to our newsletter unlocks clear Android 16 storage tips, step-by-step app-archiving guides, and practical how-tos to reclaim space on your device—ideal for anyone wanting simple, usable tech coverage. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.Alternatively, you can go through the exact same process as above. The Archive button will be replaced by a Restore button, which will do the same.
The storage problem is solved
And it's not the only one
The storage problem for smartphones is as old as time, and it's always felt like such an insurmountable burden to solve.
That's the beauty of Android 16. There are so many little problems with smartphones that this operating system is fixing, from improving battery life to bettering digital wellbeing features.
If you don't investigate your new device, though, you'll never find these fixes, which is why you should check the settings of your device every once in a while.
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Free up phone space without guesswork: subscribing to our newsletter unlocks clear Android 16 storage tips, step-by-step app-archiving guides, and practical how-tos to reclaim space on your device—ideal for anyone wanting simple, usable tech coverage. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. Trending Now
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