Google to bury Instant Apps at the end of 2025

As of December 2025, Google Play will no longer support Instant Apps. The tech company has now confirmed this. They were intended as apps that could be accessed directly from the browser – without installation. But the concept did not catch on.

Google has now confirmed this information to the tech magazine TheVerge, which was previously mentioned in the latest Canary build of the Android development environment Android Studio.

Middle ground with little success

Google introduced Instant Apps in 2017. They were intended to be a middle ground between a locally installed app and a normal website. Background: On the one hand, websites that are poorly optimized for mobile devices are unpopular with affected users. On the other hand, many do not want to download an additional app straight away. Instant apps should offer something like a demo version that, in the best case, persuades their testers to install the "big" version of the app after all. The first providers of instant apps were the online marketplace Wish and the game developer Supercell with its game Clash Royale.

Unpopular with developers

However, the concept did not catch on. Developers in particular were unable to warm their hearts to Instant Apps. This was because the maximum size of Instant Apps was very limited at 15 MB. This made it particularly difficult to implement large applications as Instant Apps.

A Google spokeswoman told TheVerge that the concept had a very muted response and that developers now prefer to pursue other approaches for such scenarios. The end of Instant Apps is an opportunity to invest more in appropriate solutions for developers that also work well.

(nen)