Google Play Store may soon offer second chances for canceled downloads

Key Takeaways

Google Play Store may introduce a Smart Resume feature for interrupted downloads.
Smart Resume would retain temporary files for 24 hours for resuming interrupted downloads.
Users can pause and resume app downloads with Smart Resume if they have 5GB free space.

The Google Play Store offers access to thousands of apps and games, but if you’re in an area with a spotty connection, downloads can often fail to complete. When this happens, you usually have to restart the download from scratch. However, it seems the Play Store may soon introduce a resume download feature to help solve this issue.

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Folks over at Android Authority have spotted a code snippet in Play Store version 43.5.26-31, hinting that Google might be developing a “Smart Resume” feature. Although there’s no screenshot or video showing it in action, the feature would reportedly allow users to pause downloads midway and then resume them right from where they left off.

Here’s how the Smart Resume feature would work: currently, the Play Store downloads app files to a temporary folder before completing the installation. These temporary files are deleted once the app is installed. The Smart Resume feature would instead retain these temporary files for up to 24 hours, allowing users to resume and complete interrupted downloads without starting over.

According to the report, users would need about 5GB of free space for this feature to work, and it would apply only to apps and games under 2GB in size.

Smart Resume will work like a pause button for Play Store downloads

The Google Play Store's Collections widget on a Pixel 8 Pro.

Currently, the Google Play Store lacks a native pause option for app downloads, unlike iOS. Instead, users can only cancel and restart downloads. With the Smart Resume feature, however, users will effectively have a pause function, as they’ll be able to cancel downloads and resume them from where they left off. This option, however, will only be available for up to 24 hours, as noted above, after which the download will need to restart from scratch.

This feature would be especially useful for users with spotty connections or limited data, like those in rural areas or airports. But that’s not all — Google also appears to be working on several useful features to the Play Store alongside the resume download option.

The company was spotted testing a new “Resume Playing” section in the Play Store’s Games tab, allowing users to jump directly into games. Additionally, Google is working to integrate AI into the Play Store to help answer questions about unfamiliar apps.