You can play a brief two-game tutorial for Clash Royale, which is enough to know what the gameplay is like. The small app size works better here for some games than others. There are some heavy hitters here, like Clash Royale, Words with Friends, and Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire. Advertisementįor now it's a closed beta only available to certain developers, and a special page for the feature shows a whopping six games.

It's usually enough to try out the app or game, and if users venture outside the features of the instant version of the app, an install box will pop up, allowing them to easily get the full version. The result is an app or game that can start up instantly, but the small size often means you are limited to certain features. For instant apps to work, developers need to modularize apps using the Android SDK, which can help break the app down into 10MB chunks that can easily be streamed to the user. Instant Apps streams the actual app code to a device and runs it in an ephemeral sandbox. In 2016, Streaming Apps was scrapped and replaced with today's ' Instant Apps' technology. In 2015, the company launched its first swing at such a project, called ' Streaming Apps.' This feature would run an Android app on Google's servers, stream a live video feed to the user, and stream clicks back to the Google server.

An 'Instant Apps' program is something Google has been experimenting with for some time. The idea behind the program is that installing an app is a big barrier to entry to users, and removing this barrier will result in more people trying more apps and games. This is the same ' Instant Apps' technology that has been around for apps, but now Google is launching it for games, too, as ' Google Play Instant.' You'll be able to instantly try a very small number of Android games before installing them, via a 'Try Now' button listed in the Play Store. The annual Game Developers Conference is happening this week, and Google is celebrating by bringing its 'Instant apps' feature to games on the Play Store. Enlarge / Should you bother installing this? Just hit the 'try now' button! reader comments 31

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