As part of Game Developer Summit, Google announced a new feature for Android game developers that will speed up the process by almost two times when starting a game download in the Google Play store. At least for Android 12 devices, the feature will be available by the end of the month. With an eye-catching name like “play as you download,” it is fairly obvious what this new feature is all about. Players will be able to begin playing the game before all the assets have been downloaded.
In the below Google GIF, you can see how quickly you might be able to sign into a game. The difference can be felt quite clearly, and as Google noted, it is already experiencing at least twice the speed of opening games.
Image Credits: Google
Play Asset Delivery is required for the feature to function. However, the developers will not have to take any action to enable the feature if they make the upgrade switch, says Google.
This isn’t Google’s first attempt at making games load faster. With “Google Play Instant,” the company already offers a related feature that allows gamers to immediately start a game from the Play Store. The idea there, though, is to completely do away with the install process and give potential players an opportunity to try out a new game right away.
Like Play Instant, the new “play as you download” feature is powered by Google’s Android App Bundle format, which is, for the most part, replacing the old APK standard
