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May I add a follow-up question? Why is their Android app 'only' 70MB? Are there fundamental differences between Android apks and iOS application bundles that c

by hs86 8y ago

May I add a follow-up question? Why is their Android app 'only' 70MB? Are there fundamental differences between Android apks and iOS application bundles that cause these size differences? It seems to be a pattern that iOS apps are just bigger: - Facebook on Android is 70MB while on iOS it is 491MB - Twitter on Android is 74MB while on iOS it is 178MB. - Spotify on Android is 104MB while on iOS it is 164MB. - Dropbox on Android is 112MB while on iOS it is 228MB.

perteraul 8y ago
Swift bundles?
- anothergoogler 8y ago
  That was my guess also, Swift apps are much heavier.
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    Facebook is all Objective-C++, if I recall correctly.
LegNeato 8y ago
Yes, Android has apk splitting ( https://developer.android.com/google/play/publishing/multiple-apks https://developer.android.com/google/play/publishing/multipl...), which enables different packages for different devices. This means an mdpi arm6 device in India doesn't need to download and install a package with xxhdpi assets and arm7 code, leading to a smaller effective package for each user. Also note that both platforms do delta updates but generally show the total size in the UI. So every update you aren't actually downloading that much over the wire. Source: I used to manage the Android and iOS release engineering teams at Facebook
- saagarjha 8y ago
  iOS has app thinning, which does essentially the same thing. However this only reduces the app size a bit, since most of the actual size comes from the app binary which is shared across devices.
  - wingerlang 8y ago
    If you enable Bitcode, each device will get their own binary though? Or does that only apply if they later change their architecture? https://help.apple.com/xcode/mac/current/#/devbbdc5ce4f https://help.apple.com/xcode/mac/current/#/devbbdc5ce4f
    - saagarjha 8y ago
      IIRC it's per architecture. So there will be a separate slice for ARMv6, ARMv7, ARMv7s, ARMv8, etc.
  - LegNeato 8y ago
    App thinning is not the same and not nearly as effective. Not to be rude, but you are literally talking to someone who was in charge of this, looked at the graphs daily, and made the call when we went over the OTA limit on iOS. When I say multiple-apks are a large reason for the discrepancy, you should give me the benefit of the doubt. It's not the only reason mind you.
    - matthewmacleod 8y ago
      If you disagree with that, it might be good to provide a bit more context than “shut up I know what I’m talking about”. As far as I was aware, the comment you were responding to was broadly accurate, but now I don’t know and have no additional information.
      - partisan 8y ago
        This was the reason for my downvote as well. “No it isn’t” is not very much to go on and saagarjha’s post didn’t merit pulling rank.
ricardobeat 8y ago
Are you looking at the iOS size as listed in the app store? They don't show the 'thinned' size - the actual download size for your device can be much smaller. For Android, developers have to generate separate builds, which already have the final size.
Matthias247 8y ago
I just checked: On my iOS phone the Facebook App (Version 189.0) is 315MB. Plus 111MB of stored local data.

by hs86 8y ago

perteraul 8y ago

Swift bundles?

anothergoogler 8y ago
That was my guess also, Swift apps are much heavier.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  Facebook is all Objective-C++, if I recall correctly.

LegNeato 8y ago

Yes, Android has apk splitting ( https://developer.android.com/google/play/publishing/multiple-apks https://developer.android.com/google/play/publishing/multipl...), which enables different packages for different devices. This means an mdpi arm6 device in India doesn't need to download and install a package with xxhdpi assets and arm7 code, leading to a smaller effective package for each user. Also note that both platforms do delta updates but generally show the total size in the UI. So every update you aren't actually downloading that much over the wire. Source: I used to manage the Android and iOS release engineering teams at Facebook

saagarjha 8y ago
iOS has app thinning, which does essentially the same thing. However this only reduces the app size a bit, since most of the actual size comes from the app binary which is shared across devices.
- wingerlang 8y ago
  If you enable Bitcode, each device will get their own binary though? Or does that only apply if they later change their architecture? https://help.apple.com/xcode/mac/current/#/devbbdc5ce4f https://help.apple.com/xcode/mac/current/#/devbbdc5ce4f
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    IIRC it's per architecture. So there will be a separate slice for ARMv6, ARMv7, ARMv7s, ARMv8, etc.
- LegNeato 8y ago
  App thinning is not the same and not nearly as effective. Not to be rude, but you are literally talking to someone who was in charge of this, looked at the graphs daily, and made the call when we went over the OTA limit on iOS. When I say multiple-apks are a large reason for the discrepancy, you should give me the benefit of the doubt. It's not the only reason mind you.
  - matthewmacleod 8y ago
    If you disagree with that, it might be good to provide a bit more context than “shut up I know what I’m talking about”. As far as I was aware, the comment you were responding to was broadly accurate, but now I don’t know and have no additional information.
    - partisan 8y ago
      This was the reason for my downvote as well. “No it isn’t” is not very much to go on and saagarjha’s post didn’t merit pulling rank.

ricardobeat 8y ago

Are you looking at the iOS size as listed in the app store? They don't show the 'thinned' size - the actual download size for your device can be much smaller. For Android, developers have to generate separate builds, which already have the final size.

Matthias247 8y ago

I just checked: On my iOS phone the Facebook App (Version 189.0) is 315MB. Plus 111MB of stored local data.