Google’s trying a new feature to let users play a game even before it downloads. Calling it as Incremental File System, XDA developers surfaced this fact of Google submitting patches for this project in May 2019. This model is similar to the BitTorrent protocol, which lets viewers have a preview of the content while downloading.
Play and decide
This new development, Incremental File System shall allow the user to play the game, at least the beginning menu modes, even before the complete binary and codes of it are still in the downloading process. This preview model will give the user an idea, to decide the game’s downloading is worth or not.
XDA developers reported this first when they found out references to Incremental File in Google’s submissions to Linux Kernel.
In its statement, Google said this development is a “special-purpose Linux virtual file system that allows execution of a program while its binary and resource files are still being lazily downloaded over the network, USB etc to allow running big Android apps.”
This feature could be expected in Android 12, as from the trends observed, Google is a month away from releasing Developer Preview on Android 11. Further, it’s being trailed on Pixel’s high-end model – 4XL. This seems more like the Instant App, which is also a Google app.
Future thoughts?
One may think of this as a useful feature for now, but considering the rapid internet development, I feel it’s couldn’t be a big thing after all. As 5G download speeds far superior to current 4G, users may get that gigabyte sized file downloaded in a couple of minutes. Yet, it’s all about innovation and helping those low-speeded network users to have a preview of their pick. Let’s enjoy it anyway.
