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by bassdart 799 days ago
> Apps with the REQUEST_DELETE_PACKAGES permission can call the PackageInstaller requestArchive method to request archiving a currently installed app package, which removes the APK and any cached files, but persists user data.

Why do they call it archiving, it looks like it's just executing pm uninstall -k to keep the user data?

So this is at least a step into the right direction, how uninstalling was handled since decades: Never ever fiddle with user data on uninstall!

> users will see a UI treatment to highlight that those apps are archived. If a user taps on an archived app, the responsible installer will get a request to unarchive it

What happens if one tries to start an "archived" app which isn't available on the store anymore?

Correection: pm unstall -k also keeps the app cache which could, according to <https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1ayheuf/is_there_a...>, be a problem when reinstalling an app. So I assume pm uninstall uses a new parameter or even a completely new command in Android 15 for archiving.