Google is killing Instant Apps, they’ll cease to exist in December this year. This is the latest Google product to join the Google Graveyard, which is packed with both hardware and software products. Everything from Stadia to Google+ can be found there.
Google is killing off Instant Apps, the feature is going away in December
Now, in regard to Instant Apps, that was a really nice idea by Google. Unfortunately, however, they never became popular. Instant Apps basically allow users to launch part of apps without even installing them, just to experience them before pulling the trigger.
It is actually a really good idea, it didn’t catch on, and Google will ditch the feature altogether. Instant Apps have been around since 2017, so it has been 8 years at this point, basically. It’s a shame the devs never became truly interested in it.
They are the reason it didn’t catch on, of course, as they were required to create a trimmed-down version of their apps. Instant Apps were capped at 15 MB. That limit was a problem for some, that’s for sure, so that may have played a role in their downfall, too.
Google is being very quiet about this
Google did kind of announce that it’s killing Instant Apps, but rather indirectly. The company opted not to release a blog post or anything like that, at least not yet. A notice was discovered in the latest canary build of Android Studio, however. It says the following: “Instant App support will be removed by Google Play in December 2025. Publishing and all Google Play Instant APIs will no longer work.”
We don’t know why is Google being so quiet about this. Perhaps the company is preparing some sort of announcement or something. The official developer documentation has not yet been updated with the information either. One thing is for sure, not many users will notice this change, considering how unpopular Instant Apps were.
