With the increase in mobile storage spaces that have gone up to 256 GB, app size is also growing. App size is sure to grow as developers are adding new features, trying to meet customer needs, and also trying to support their apps on various screen sizes. Around 74% of the world uses Android, and 70% of users consider app size before installing them. Moreover, as humans are getting accustomed to instant gratification, they ponder on ways to download apps as they take up storage spaces. Despite the cloud support for photos, videos, and files, android users face issues, such as mobile hanging due to app size. As customer expectations are increasing, android app developers are considering other ways to reduce app size while still incorporating significant additional features and keeping in mind the customer experience.
Below are the 8 best ways to reduce android app size:
When generating the release version of your app, you can choose between APK and Android App Bundle. The second option will make Google play to generate the APK with only those features a specific user need.
To build app bundles, follow these steps:
Please note: Android Package Kit – As per developer console, by the mid of 2021, developers won’t be able to upload apk on play store)
Proguard is probably one of the most useful tools to reduce your APK size. It reduces the source code files to a minimum and can reduce the APK file size upto 90%.
This Android Studio plugin will provide you recommendations to reduce the size of your application.
With the APK Analyzer, you can accomplish the following:
There are three ways to access the APK Analyzer when a project is open:
More details at: Jetbrains
Whether used or not, every resource takes up memory. It is therefore necessary to have only those resources that you need, and to use those in a memory efficient way. In other words, you should consider the resolution of the image before finalizing on it.
As large libraries consume huge amounts of space, it is advisable to remove parts of it in case you do not need them and if it is permitted by the license of the library. Proguard can aid you in this process but it is not always able to remove large internal dependencies.
They are sharp and do not consume much space as they rely on mathematical calculations and not on pixels that need to be saved. However, they cannot be used for photography.
By using tools such as pngcrush, you can reduce the file size of PNG images. It is advisable to do this images as they still look the same.
If only a small portion of users use a specific density, it might be better to let Android scale your other densities for them as it would reduce your APK size.
As mobile storage space is growing, people are installing a large number of apps to meet a wide range of needs. But as app size is increasing, people are continuing to struggle with storage issues. With provisions such as Proguard, one can compress the APK file size and optimize libraries easily. Compressing images and using vector graphs are also useful in reducing app size.
About the author: Anand Singh is Tech Lead at Mantra Labs. He is integral to the company’s Android-based projects and enterprise application development.
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