Google has never been good at app backups, so uninstalling an app usually means losing all the data associated with it forever. Android 10 has a feature that saves your app data, and it's just starting to appear in a handful of apps. One of them is WhatsApp, meaning you can save your accounts and chats even if you uninstall it from your phone.

For most apps, uninstalling clears the app itself along with the data it contains. However, Android 10 lets developers offer the option to keep that data. When you initiate an uninstall from the home screen or app settings menu, the dialog pop-up includes a check box to keep the data. See below for examples. Uninstalling from the Play Store does not offer the option to keep app data, though.

If you keep the data, you can reinstall the app at a later date and pick up where you left off. For example, WhatsApp instantly has your account and chats ready to go. Unfortunately, there seem to be very few apps that do this right now. We've only spoted WhatsApp and ASR Voice Recorder with the option so far. There are probably others, and more apps will surely add support in the future.