Instant Apps, have you heard of them? Probably not. In 2016, Google launched this new feature, which caused a sensation at the time: no longer did you need to go through the Play Store to install an app; you simply tapped a link on a service's website to get the Android app almost immediately.
Google is pulling the curtain on Instant Apps
But this isn't the full app, but rather an excerpt to give a taste of what to expect—before, perhaps, downloading it from the Google store. Several services, like Vimeo and Wish, and even games, have jumped on the bandwagon, allowing you to try them before diving in.
But developer interest in this solution quickly waned. The technical constraints are indeed very significant: an Instant App is nothing more or less than a "real" application that must not exceed 15MB. The development work is therefore significant for a return on investment that has proven too low.
The latest alpha version of Android Studio contains an alert warning developers that support for Instant Apps will be removed from Google Play in December 2025. The programming interfaces (APIs) and the publishing of these small pieces of apps will no longer work.
In 2020, Apple launched App Clips, the iOS equivalent of Google's Instant Apps. The principle is similar, and success is just as uncertain on iPhone. But for the moment, we haven't heard any word about the end of App Clips.
Source: Android Authority
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