Google's secret acquisition could forever change the way we use our smartphones
There's no concrete evidence if Google will actually be using Agawi's technology anytime soon, but it's a move that not only favors Google's primary function as an internet search engine, but it also benefits consumers as well.
The ability to stream apps like you would stream music from Spotify means you could opt to buy mobile devices less storage capacity, which means you wouldn't necessarily need to drop an extra $100 or so just to own more apps from the Google Play Store.
Many people buy phones with greater storage capacities to ensure they'll have enough room for all their apps - and some apps, particularly games, take up huge amounts of space. "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," for example, requires 2.4 GB of storage. But streaming apps rather than storing them could alleviate that pressure, and you could feel more at ease buying the less expensive model with less storage space.
Plus, considering that most people only use four of their apps on a regular basis, there's really no need for us to keep most of our lesser-used apps stored on our mobile devices.
Storing fewer apps on your device could lead to better battery life, too, as some apps can activate parts of your smartphone like cellular, WiFi, and GPS antennas to refresh and stay updated. So, if you have 30 apps in your phone, and you only use four regularly, 26 of them could be unnecessarily using up your smartphone's resources.
Smartphones wouldn't need to feature the fastest, most powerful internal hardware, either, which also tends to drive up costs for consumers. Most of the processing would occur where the app is streaming from, and all you would really need is strong WiFi or cellular signal.
It could be argued that streaming apps would drive your data usage, thus your monthly phone bill, through the roof, as some apps can be quite large and many people use apps outside of WiFi zones - like when they're in the car or on the go. But it's possible only parts of an app that you're using would be streamed, rather than the entire app. It's the same principle as listening to a single song on Spotify; it doesn't mean your streaming the rest of the album, too.
The Information's report also suggested that app streaming would work with free trials, so instead of endlessly streaming a paid app, you would get to try the app for 30 seconds or two minutes to help you decide whether or not you want to pay for the full app to be on your phone.
Indeed, streaming apps in the cloud could greatly benefit consumers, but it would also benefit app developers, too. Instead of searching for specific apps in the app store, we could search for a service, and Google would show results with apps that provide that service, which leads to better app discovery. And since people only use a small number of apps each day, Google's new service could help more apps get used, or hidden apps get discovered.
For example, rather than searching for Seamless, you could search for "food delivery services," and Google will show you a list of apps that deliver food. And who knows, perhaps you'd discover a new food delivery service like Caviar that you would never have found if you stuck to Seamless.
A Google-powered app streaming service could be significant for both app makers and consumers, but how soon we can expect to stream all our apps from the cloud is still unclear.