Copied from the iPhone: Android smartphones get a practical iOS feature

Google uses the competition: The US group is currently testing a feature for Android smartphones that iOS users have known and appreciated for a long time. This ensures more transparency on the home screen.

Steve Jobs, the late Apple founder, once said, “It’s better to steal something good than to make it badly yourself.” Over the years, iOS has adopted many features that were once only found on Android. So that Android is now copying a handy iOS feature is a refreshing change.

Google integrates app install indicator on Android smartphones

The brings the Installation status of apps on the home screen (Source: 9to5Google). After you have pressed “Download” in the Google Play Store, the corresponding app will appear greyed out on the home screen. A status display around the app icon provides information about the current installation status.

The advantages of the new system: Users can Drag the app to where you want it on the home screen before it has completely downloaded. It should be possible to stop the download by tapping the icon. According to 9to5Google, the new function is only available for new app downloads, not for updates. However, this may change in the future. You can see how this works in practice here:

Such a feature has been around for a long time on iOS and iPadOS. The installation status is displayed there within the app, not outside.

The innovations of Android 12 at a glance:

For all smartphones from Android 11 or newer

So far, the new app installation display is not available to everyone. For example, the feature is not yet available on our Pixel 6 running the latest Android version. So Google hasn’t started a broad rollout yet. Once that is done, the feature on all Android smartphones with Android 11 or newer collect. The Google Play services serve as the basis, a software update should not be necessary.