Till now mobile users might find it pretty much impossible to download apps over mobile networks. This is because platforms like Android and iOS would simply block your downloads from Play Store/App Store when you are connected to mobile networks. When they did the limit would be so small that bigger apps are pretty much a no-go. Their reason is that they do not want to put a dent in our data plan. Google has even added an option to Android Play Store that would prevent large downloads from starting without your express permission on mobile data.
Now according to recent reports, Google is intended to change all this. As you can see in the image above, Google is currently testing a new feature that allows users to queue their downloads when not connected to Wi-Fi. Whenever you try to download an app via Play Store, you will be presented with an option to “Download Now” or to “Wait for Wi-Fi”. If you choose to “Wait for Wi-Fi”, the download will automatically start the next time you are on Wi-Fi. This is a very handy feature, particularly when you find an interesting app or game when on mobile data. You can simply queue the app and next time you connected to Wi-Fi, your phone will download it automatically.
However, this new feature is not yet mainstream and it is available to select few users in beta form. The Play Store client has a warning that this feature is still in testing. In addition, if Google removes this feature, queued apps might download on mobile data. What this means is that Google may or may not make this option permanent. However, we can agree this is a good feature and hope that Google will roll out this feature to more users.
