Android Instant Apps now work on over 500 million devices

In May, after a number of months in testing, Google officially launched support for Android Instant Apps. Since then, these lightweight versions of standard Android apps have been able to be used by a growing number of smartphones and tablets. Today, Google confirmed that support for Android Instant Apps is now available on over 500 million devices since it launched just a few months ago.

As we have reported before, these apps are supposed to give people a way to simply go to the Google Play Store, via a website or other link, and instead of fully downloading an app, they can simply click on an “Open App” selection to almost instantly begin using it. The idea is to give consumers a way to access an app they would not normally keep stored on their device, but still allow them to use it. It also gives developers a way to introduce people to their app, as a kind of demo so they might be tempted to download and use the full version later.

In a blog post today, Google mentioned that a number of companies have already seen some success in developing and releasing Android Instant Apps. One of them is the streaming video service Vimeo. Since the launch of its Instant App, Vimeo has seen an increase of session durations by 130 percent. Another company that launched an Instant App is the shopping service Jet, owned by Walmart. Since its Instant App launch, Jet has seen their conversion rate go up by 27 percent.

Even the famous New York Times Crossword launched an Android Instant App version. Google says since its release, the NY Times Crossword saw over double the number of online sessions compared to its regular app. That means more people are likely to purchase subscriptions to the full version of the app.

Have you used any Android Instant Apps and, if so, what was your experience like? Let us know your impressions in the comments!