The size of your app’s APK has a dramatic effect on its loading speed, memory usage and power usage – as well as user experience on limited mobile data plans or slow internet connections. Therefore it is critical that as much of its size can be reduced during development and post-release – we will explore various strategies here that may help make your APK smaller.
Unused codes and resources are among the main contributors to an app’s APK size, so when creating your app it is essential that any unnecessary pngs, jpegs and assets be removed from development. Another way to reduce APK size is using vector drawables instead of raster images since these can be scaled to different sizes without losing quality while taking up less space than their raster counterparts – plus you can compress images to reduce their size even further!
Additionally, to reduce the APK size of your app, reduce its dependencies. Android Lint can help with this by scanning your application for any unnecessary scripts or classes and eliminating them; Android’s APK Analyzer can then identify those contributors to its size.
Consider using the Android App Bundle format to reduce APK size. This new format enables you to package all of your code and resources into one single file – significantly cutting the size of APKs. To build this way in Android Studio, select Android App Bundle as the Build menu option.
Finally, avoid including unnecessary screen densities in your APK. Because only a minority of users will possess devices with specific densities, it’s not necessary to include resources specifically for them in your APK. Instead, the Android OS provides tools for scaling existing resources designed for other screen densities as necessary.
Finally, use ProGuard to reduce the size of your APK by clearing away unused resources and code. Doing this could cut its size down by up to 90%!
Akash is an intelligent and tireless Android engineer at Mindinventory who never ceases to seek knowledge. With an expert grasp of object-oriented programming, problem-solving, complexity analysis and lean/agile development methodologies he strives to make his apps as light and slim as possible – especially on low memory/high speed devices such as Android Go. Furthermore, Akash believes strongly in continuous learning, sharing his knowledge freely while working on an exciting medical app project for Android Go!
