Google: official Apps2SD implementation for Android coming “soon”

Robert Hallock 5 May, 2010 at 12:40am ET Article published in Tech

An Android engineer by the name of San has confirmed that an official implementation of Apps2SD is being prepared for a future release of the Android operating system.

Apologies, but I’m not permitted to disclose scheduling information – suffice to say
it’s coming soon. 🙂

Sorry for being vague, and thank you for your continued patience – I sincerely
appreciate it.

Happy friday 🙂

Long featured on third-party Android ROMs like CyanogenMod, Apps2SD allows users to store applications on microSD cards, which can be had in sizes up to 32GB. Such a maneuver would put an end to ongoing criticism that Android phones do not offer enough storage space. For example, the Nexus One features a 512MB ROM, but makes less than 200MB available to the user because a large portion of the total storage is consumed by the Android operating system.

Hardware capabilities aside, an official implementation could also permit Android 2.0 or better to finally fit on devices like the G1. The G1’s partition for the operating system is only 69MB, while the bare essentials of Android 2.1 consumes 70MB before wallpapers, ringtones, official Google apps and the like. The partition was set to such a small size to allow users space to store their apps, but the partition could be significantly enlarged if applications could be stored on a microSD card.

Though most users will never encounter the upper limits of their device’s onboard app storage, it is nevertheless a concern for Android apps as they continue to grow in size, complexity and number. Putting Android devices on par with the 16-32GB of storage offered by the iPhone, for example, would be another feather in the Android ecosystem’s cap.

Comments

5 May 2010 ~ 7:24am Snarkasm The whole community's hoping it's in FroYo. I'm not getting my hopes up, for now. I'm happy enough rooted.
5 May 2010 ~ 9:41am AlexDeGruven It sounds like something that will be available via the market, rather than rolled in to the base ROM, which seems to be the way they're trying to go with a lot of things in FroYo
5 May 2010 ~ 9:45am Kwitko Is that to keep the ROM bloat-free?
5 May 2010 ~ 9:48am Thrax

Kwitko wrote:

Is that to keep the ROM bloat-free?

http://tech.icrontic.com/news/rumor-next-android-versions-to-address-platform-fragmentation/
5 May 2010 ~ 9:53am Kwitko Ah. Thank you, sir.
5 May 2010 ~ 11:59am Zanthian Apps2SD is the only thing that made my G1 actually usable, so I am glad to see it get some official support.
5 May 2010 ~ 9:55pm ardichoke Apps2SD was great on my G1. Now that they're packing devices full of quite a bit more memory though it somehow seems less useful... I mean, I have nearly 90M of app space free still.

Though I guess this would be good for developing more expansive games....

Oh look, I just convinced myself that this is still useful.
11 Apr 2011 ~ 1:14pm Gregory Will this feature ever come on Android 2.1 devices ? My phone manufacturer say they havent got any updates planned so I want to be able to make the most of my phone while its still on 2.1
11 Apr 2011 ~ 1:17pm Thrax No. The feature was added in Android 2.2+.