What's up with the exponential increase of the size of apps?

DesiPower

Lifer
Nov 22, 2008
15,299
740
126
I remember back in the android 2.x days, app sizes used to be in kbs, even about a year back they were like 2 - 3 MBs. Now every app and its grandma is like 6 to 8 mb in size!! What are they packing in them? I do not see 5 to 10 fold addition in features, are they being packed with tracking and spying software? Is it just me or did anybody else notice it too?
 

Ravynmagi

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2007
3,102
24
81
I think part of it is higher resolution images and textures. Back in Android 2.x days most phones were only 800x480. Now many phones are 1920x1080.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
Combination of more functionality with high resolution imagery. Even with 16GBs still being the de facto storage size, apps with install sizes of ~10MBs shouldn't cause much concern.
 

BrightCandle

Diamond Member
Mar 15, 2007
4,762
0
76
Its the ever increasing screen resolution. When we make an app we have to provide multiple different pixel density versions of the same image for different screen densities and its quite a list, at least 5 or 6 versions of the same image. You also potentially need different layouts and other resources that all consume space.

Combine that with the fact that apps are getting more complicated (they rarely get smaller!) and are written in languages like Scala which have a lot of runtime libraries its no wonder that they have been growing pretty rapidly.
 

gmaster456

Golden Member
Sep 7, 2011
1,877
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71
What everyone else said. Higher resolution, more textures and more functionality. However ads are pulled from an online source and are typically served by something like iAds and Google Ads.
 

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,739
452
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6-8mb? I wish... all the games I remember downloading in recent memory are ~40mb.
 

DesiPower

Lifer
Nov 22, 2008
15,299
740
126
I am not worried about the storage size or bandwidth, I have plenty of both. But just wondering what they put in them that makes them so bulky. If they are accounting for all possible resolution and graphics, maybe they should come up with a system of pulling it from some play store server during or post installation based on devise specs, that will same some precious 4G bandwidth...
 

vshah

Lifer
Sep 20, 2003
19,003
24
81
often 3rd party libraries that aren't strictly necessary - which in turn contain more 3rd party libraries.
 

BrightCandle

Diamond Member
Mar 15, 2007
4,762
0
76
So the recent API increase in Android has meant I needed to generate yet higher resolution images for my app. In addition I had to add some new layouts for different shaped/density tablets. This time I didn't need to add any code but the new image is by far the biggest and the app gained 12% in size for that alone. Its just one of those things everytime a manufacturer adds an even high density screen I need to produce an even higher quality image for the icon to make it look good on that device, any everyone ends up downloading it.

I don't have lots of 3rd party libraries that are pulling my app into massive sizes so the images really do dominate the program itself.
 

Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
22,025
869
126
My old behold 2 only had 128megs for app installs. Now gta:San andreas takes over 2gb.
 

desura

Diamond Member
Mar 22, 2013
4,627
129
101
This is kinda why I've been putting off the purchase of an ipad. Only when a 64gb air is fairly affordable I might bite.
 

DesiPower

Lifer
Nov 22, 2008
15,299
740
126
This is kinda why I've been putting off the purchase of an ipad. Only when a 64gb air is fairly affordable I might bite.

Do Apple apps have the same problem? After all theyare built for one device only...
 

Rakehellion

Lifer
Jan 15, 2013
12,181
35
91
I am not worried about the storage size or bandwidth, I have plenty of both. But just wondering what they put in them that makes them so bulky. If they are accounting for all possible resolution and graphics, maybe they should come up with a system of pulling it from some play store server during or post installation based on devise specs, that will same some precious 4G bandwidth...

Well, no, because you'd still have to download the images.