Optimise your APK Size

A recent study by Google found that the average app size has quintupled since the play store was launched in 2012. As app developers, we continue to add more features, more SDK’s, higher resolution graphics, pushing the envelope of APK size even higher. But how does the increase in APK size, impact App installs? The same Google study also revealed that about 75% of people consider the size of APK before downloading.

This talk goes through the steps you can use to reduce your APK size and how at Viki, we reduced our app size by 50%

Transcript

1. Optimise your APK Size
2. Rakuten Viki • Video Streaming • Korean and Asian TV Shows • Global TV powered by Fans
3. Let’s get started
4. App Size Growth Courtesy: Google Report
5. App Size vs Install Courtesy: Google Report
6. Small is Better. Why? • How much data to download • Time taken to download and install • Internet connectivity issues
7. Small is Better. Why? Android Go Store Play Store
8. Small is Better. Why?
9. Case Study Open Sourced WordPress Android app
10. APK Analyser
15. Actual Size on disk
16. Download size from Play Store
17. Images Original (107 Kb) Optimised by TinyPNG (33 Kb)
18. Images
19. Drawables
20. Vector Assets
21. Reuse assets - tint
22. Reuse assets - Cross reference
24. Bonus: Use WebP
26. Remove Unused Resources
27. Remove Unused Resources • Does not remove assets • Does not remove resources inside “values” folder.
28. Remove Unused Resources
30. Downloadable Fonts • Remove fonts from assets folder • Download at runtime
32. Proguard
33. Proguard
35. Know your dependencies
36. Dependencies - Renderscript
37. Dependencies - Renderscript
38. Dependencies - Kotlin and Moshi • Kotlin-reflect jar - 2.5Mb • Use Codegen • Annotate model objects with @JsonClass(generateAdapter = true)
39. Dependencies - Lottie • Use instead of GIF and PNG sequences • Json’s are smaller • Multiple ways to generate the same animation • Follow their guidelines to generate optimized JSON’s
40. Total Savings ??
41. Total Savings Raw File Size => 14.8 MB to 10.4 MB = -4.4 MB Download Size => 10.7 MB to 6.5 MB = -4.2 MB Original Final
42. Split APK’s • Build multiple APK’s • Target by screen density • Target by binary/CPU architecture
43. Split APK’s Android App Bundle • Build multiple APK’s • Target by screen density • Target by binary/CPU architecture
44. Android App Bundle • Announced at IO 18 • Google does the job of split apk’s • Enroll for Google Play Signing
45. Summary • On Viki, APK size reduced by 50% • Saw growth in emerging markets after that • Helped with instant app and Android Go • Tip: Hook up your CI to detect size changes • And remember lesser is always better
47. Thank You