Tips to Optimize and Reduce the Size of your Android Application

 

Introduction

Selling an app seems to be too largely quite tricky. Users usually do not download something that is heavily loaded. This size of your APK file changes the loading speed of an application and determines the power consumption. It is important to keep the size of a file in check since mobiles are storage constraint devices. Even if devices are updating with extra storage and additional batteries, there is always restriction and no infinite storage facility. Hence, reducing the size of your application while optimizing its usage is very important for any app developer. To suit this, you need to hire android app developers who are skilled.

Methods to Minimize and Optimize the Size of your APK file

You may use the following techniques to reduce your APK file’s size and optimize the return from it. 

• The Use of Android App Bundles is highly recommended

While creating an application, it is created to fit all kinds of devices by encoding different codes for different kinds of devices. This adds to the size of your APK file and the users who download it are forced to download the whole coding format which is useless and pointless to them. By using Android App Bundles, you can reduce the size by 35% on average. By maintaining multiple APK resources like additional languages, density-screen resources that are never used by most of the users. Publishing your app through Android App Bundles helps in maintaining a lean structure.

• Android Size Analyzer for Understanding what is Important

This tool helps you to decide strategically upon the size of your application file. Android Studio consists of the Analyzer. It helps you to find out which applications are taking up more storage. It is available as a plugin. The best contributors can be kept and focused on while the rest can be set aside or disposed of. Understanding the absolute size of the files and their composition can be used for a comparative study of the viability of the files.

• Adding Optional Features for Users

You can choose to give the users an optional feature structure where the core features are automatically downloaded while the optional ones can only be downloaded on demand. This reduces a load of all the features on the app and helps to maintain the versatility of the app as well.

• Getting familiar with the APK File Structure

Understanding the format and structure of your APK file is very important before any other proceedings. All the files that comprise your app are in a ZIP file in a compiled format. Separating optional and on-demand features by using the dynamic feature module, can reduce the size a lot.

• Reducing Unused Resource Count and Size for Optimization

Your app will download fast if it has a small-sized APK file and it will also consume less power. Erasing and removing resources that are not useful to the files can reduce the size drastically. Libraries have a lot of resource use, minimizing it can improve an application’s usability and agility. By using drawable objects, reusing old resources, rendering images from your code, crunching and compressing PNG and JPEG files respectively, using graphical features that involve vectors for animation can help in decreasing the count of resources. They are no value addition to your app and hence have to be removed.

• Reduce Java and Native code to Reduce Size

The generation of extra methods and classes by protocol buffering tools may increase the size of an app by 2x manifold. Understand the footprint of the coding and avoid enumerations to reduce the size of your application. By using native code when releasing a version of your app can optimize the size which involves two methods- Erosion of debugging systems and prevention of taking out native libraries. Reusing the codes that are repetitive is a tactical way of handling and optimizing your application’s size.

• Offer Lighter Versions of the Android APK Files

By providing a lightweight, instant application that has the same experience as the original, heavier file can help you limit the application size. This ensures that there is no decrease in the number of users due to the size. 

• Use ProGuard for Conversions

By using ProGuard, enumerations can be avoided as they are very dubious. They consume a lot of energy and speed if their frameworks are complex. ProGuard converts these enumerations to integers, reducing the size of the file.

Conclusion

These techniques are only some of the methods that you can use to optimize your app’s size. A top android app development company tends to directly link the app size to the number of downloads of the app. You need to have a team of skilled, experienced, and smart developers who understand these problems and situations wherever they occur. These techniques will contribute towards your normal or standard application’s space requirements and problems.