This week, Google detailed some of the updates it’s planning to bring to its mobile ecosystem at the Google Developer Summit. While Stadia is… fairly cool, we’re really interested in the updates the company will bring to its Android 12 mobile platform — just because we actually use it here in South Africa.

It announced a new feature called “play as you download” – built specifically to give mobile users quicker access to games, even if they have a slower download speed. Something South Africans are far too used to by now.

Android’s waiting game is over

If you’re a console gamer, you’ll know that PlayStation has a similar download feature that allows you to boot the game before the full file is downloaded.

Players will gain access to the game, even before most of the assets are downloaded. Smartphone games can be some of the largest files to download, and if you’ve ever tried to download the likes of Asphalt or Call of Duty Mobile on your mobile data, you would’ve suffered the time-consuming and financial consequences.

“With this new feature, Google promises that it’ll take only half the time to jump into a game that weighs in at 400MB or so,” TechCrunch reports.

Of course, this won’t shrink the download size, unfortunately. But mobile players will be able to boot the game well before the download has started and will be able to start playing. “The idea there, though, is to completely do away with the install process and give potential players an opportunity to try out a new game right away,” TechCrunch details.

The “play as you download” feature is built and powered by Google’s Android App Bundle format, which it plans to replace the old APL format in due course.