Google is seemingly planning to deliver the ‘parallel downloads’ feature to the Play Store. The latest version of the Google Play Store is pointing in that direction, it’s not just a rumor.
Google Play Store could soon offer the ‘parallel downloads’ feature
According to findings by AssembleDebug, the Google Play Store 40.0.13 is the version in question here. Enabling specific flags produced the source with the ability to download multiple apps at the same time.
That sounds great, right? Well, yes, but the feature doesn’t seem to work with updates. It only works upon the initial installation of a specific app, which is nowhere near as useful as having something like this for updates.
Google also placed a cap on the number of simultaneous downloads you can conduct. Only two can be downloaded at the same time. Do note that AssembleDebug managed to push that up to 5, though, via the code.
Something similar was spotted four years ago
If all of this sounds familiar, there’s a good reason for it. This feature was in testing four years ago. It never came to be, however, and it functioned a bit differently back then.
That being said, Google seems to be more serious this time around. We could actually see this feature arrive as a standard feature in the near future. Google is still in the testing phase, though, so… who knows how long will that take.
It would be great if Google would consider tweaking this feature further, however. In two ways, first, and more importantly, for this to work with app updates. Also, second, for the feature to work with more than two apps at the same time.
That being said, there’s also a chance Google will scrap everything, of course. The company did not confirm this feature is coming or anything of the sort, so we cannot know for sure.
