As a part of its push to improve the gaming experience in Android 12, Google has announced a new "Play as You Download" feature. As the name indicates, the feature will allow you to start playing games on your Android device while they are still being downloaded.
The feature is similar to Google Play Instant, which lets you run selected apps and games on your Android device without installing them first. However, while Play Instant is meant for small apps and games, Play as You Download is meant for large games that can take a few minutes to download and install.
Start Playing Large Games Before Their Download Completes
Announced at the Google for Games Developer Summit 2021, the Play as You Download feature will download the core assets of a game first so that you can start playing the game instantly. Then, while the game loads, Google Play will continue to download its important assets in the background so that your gameplay is not interrupted.
Google claims the feature will allow you to start playing a 400MB game within seconds on your Android device instead of waiting for a few minutes for the download and installation to finish. Google has seen games open at least two times faster in its testing, leading to a better user experience.
The Play as You Download feature will work with games that use the Play Asset Delivery system. Game developers using this delivery system won't have to make any other changes to their game to support this feature.
The Play as You Download feature is a part of Android 12, though Google did not make it clear if it will be available to all Android devices running the upcoming version of the OS or not.
Android Games Update Size to Become Smaller
Google is also making other Android and Google Play changes to deliver a better gaming experience to Android users. There's a new compression format that can reduce asset size leading to a 90 percent reduction in the update size of games.
Additionally, Google is debuting the Play Integrity API to ensure that users have installed a genuine game from the Play Store on a genuine Android device, thereby clamping down on piracy.
Developers will also be able to run app campaigns for their upcoming games that are available for pre-registration on the Play Store to attract more players.
During the session, Greg Hartell, product management director of Google Play and Android, revealed that Android is now running on over 3 billion monthly active devices. Google Play is being accessed by over 2.5 billion monthly users who collectively download 140 billion apps and games every month.
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