Apple on Tuesday released the second iOS 9 beta to developers and, as was the case with the first beta released two weeks ago, developers are uncovering previously unknown features. Users with insufficient space available to accommodate the 1.3 GB update on their iOS device will be glad to know that they do not have to delete apps or content.

As shown in the tweet below, iOS 9 will offer to temporarily delete some apps to make space for the update. Once the iOS 9 update is completed, apps that were deleted will be automatically replaced.

Well this is new. pic.twitter.com/BQKMDn5D6c

— Kaleb Butt (@Kaleb_Butt) June 23, 2015

It is unclear which apps iOS 9 will prioritize to delete and reinstall if a device has insufficient space for the operating system update, but according to 9to5Mac, apps are reinstalled without any loss of data. It is probably safe to speculate that iOS 9 would prioritize apps that do not store any significant amount of data locally on a device; if this is not the case, it would have to backup that data and restore it – this will be both time and resource intensive and therefore not ideal.

This feature, alongside the significantly smaller size of the iOS 9 update compared to the iOS 8 update (iOS 9 is only 1.3 GB vs. iOS 8’s 4.58 GB), is likely an effort by Apple to increase adoption rates for new operating system releases.

It is pure speculation, but owners or 16 GB iPhones – and those who have used every last bit of available storage – were likely reluctant to install iOS 8 as it required them to delete apps and/or content from their devices.

With this auto app deletion and reinstallation feature – provided Apple can pull it off without losing any app data – will make it much easier for users to update their devices to iOS 9.

With iOS 9, Apple has also allowed app developers to implement “app thinning”, a feature that lets them push out only the necessary portions of app updates to users instead of the full app.

A public beta of iOS 9 is expected in July, with the general release slated to take place sometime in September.

Image via apple.com