What this means is that instead of the app completely being deleted off your phone, you will be able to just archive them. According to Google, this method will help you save 60% of app storage, which we know isn’t 100% and might not necessarily be enough for some users, but for those who still have storage to spare, this could be an alternative.
According to Google, “Archiving is a new functionality that will allow users to reclaim ~60% of app storage temporarily by removing parts of the app rather than uninstalling it completely. An archived app will remain on the device and can easily be restored to the latest available compatible version, whilst preserving the user data.”
In a way, this is similar to how Apple’s iOS platform handles apps that aren’t used quite as frequently. Instead of deleting the apps, iOS does a similar thing where it’s archived. The app icon and data remains, so when users want to use it again, they can just tap on it and it’ll download the rest of the data.