Android Instant Apps will reinvent mobile software

At this year’s Google I/O conference, the company demoed a preview of a forthcoming technology called Android Instant Apps. While Google also showcased all-new virtual assistant products, the next version of Android, and a new suite of chat and video-conferencing apps at the event, Instant Apps perhaps grabbed more attention and headlines than any other I/O news. The reason is that Android Instant Apps fundamentally change users’ expectations for what mobile apps should be on the Android platform, and a paradigm shift in how mobile apps and mobile websites differ.

In the future, when users click on a web link for a piece of content that might be available within an app, rather than taking them to a website that prompts them to download the app from the Google Play Store, Android will automatically present them with a native view of the content within an app experience. This happens automatically—the app is downloaded piecemeal as its different sections or experiences are needed.

This is an enormous change in how apps are delivered to users on the world’s largest mobile platform. The Android apps of the future will feel more like websites. The websites of the future will defer to Android apps. The line between web and native experiences is beginning to blur, and it’s happening entirely within the borders of Android native app development.

Discoverability

The time and effort necessary for users to view content within a native app container is now effectively zero—users tap a link, and the system intelligently presents the content on the other side within an actual native app. There’s no searching on the Google Play Store—it just appears, with a helpful button at the top of the view that prompts users to download the full app permanently for themselves.

From a user perspective, this offers a rich and engaging mobile app experience without having to download and store the full native apps on their devices. From a developer perspective, it means increased discoverability and a greater likelihood that users will see and experience your app. If deep linking was a great way to bridge the gap between native apps and mobile websites in previous versions of Android, Instant Apps take that many steps further. Now, users can access and experience your native app without doing anything at all.

Android App Development

From a development perspective, there are changes in how Android app developers need to architect their Android app to take advantage of Android Instant Apps. Different experiences within the app need to be divided from one another and be made available to be downloaded in stages, so that users can grab just the pieces they need for the experience they’re requesting.

Developers need to rethink the app and ensure that no dependencies exist between various sections, and then signal the Google Play Store that their app is ready for the Instant App treatment by Android users. Ultimately, the greater number of user eyeballs that will see and experience any part of your app—just by clicking on links from emails or text messages—is worth the development effort necessary to offer one-off piecemeal experiences.

User Perception

Perhaps the greatest change that Android Instant Apps represent is the shift in users’ perceptions of what constitutes an app versus a mobile website. If websites are things that aren’t stored on your device, and are only downloaded and cached when their information is specifically requested, that definition now has to expand to include native apps using Android Instant Apps.

This development reframes Android apps as fluid, impermanent things, allowing users to pass through them intermittently and without commitment to view the content within them. Native apps have always offered a better user experience in mobile contexts than mobile apps, but have had their challenges—users needed to discover the apps on the Play Store, download them on service plans with limited data bandwidth, and store them on devices with limited storage.

Now, the advantages of true native apps and the advantages of one-and-done websites have come together to form a new mobile user experience with Android Instant Apps. And even in Android app developers can’t implement these Instant App requirements instantly, they should certainly try to explore them quickly.