{"id":1685,"date":"2019-09-26T16:16:55","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T15:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cowrywise.com\/blog\/?p=1685"},"modified":"2021-05-13T10:35:18","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T09:35:18","slug":"cowrywise-reduce-android-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cowrywise.com\/blog\/cowrywise-reduce-android-app\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cowrywise Android App: Why Size Matters To Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why Should You Bother About Your App’s Size?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

At the moment, many Cowrywise users are between the ages of 18\u201334. They range from university students, NYSC Corp members and the working class. These are people who also use social media apps that are about 40MB each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Does The User Think?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Given the heavy use of such apps, it is only natural for smartphone users to place them on a higher pedestal. It’s key to avoid competing with such apps for storage space. Yes, your app is essential but is it as necessary as Instagram?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve spoken to a couple of people (who have never heard of Cowrywise but want to save money<\/a>). The conversations usually end up with this: “I don’t need another app that takes space on my phone”. In other words, “I’d rather have Instagram than a savings app that takes more space”. Size is a factor when these users want to download a new app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI),<\/a> 1GB of data should not be more than 2% of monthly income.<\/a> Let’s put this in some perspective. If your app size is 48MB, a user with a 1GB internet subscription would be using 5% of their data bundle to download your app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, our Android app size sits at a measly 8.5MB download size on my phone and takes up 28MB after installation. GTBank’s app, on the other hand, has a 38MB download size and takes up 151MB. In the finance space, we’re doing pretty well. The image below shows how our app’s size compares to other finance apps.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"cowrywise-compared-to-other-finance-apps\"
Cowrywise vs other finance apps. Source: Google Play Console<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Our Approach: Continuous Android App Size Reduction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When we launched the first version of the mobile app,<\/a> the size was ~24MB. Good, but for every update pushed, it was still about the same size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every bug fix, new feature, or text change we made, required the user to download another 24MB \u2014 2.5% of 1GB. This was a huge turn-off. In the following paragraphs, I’ll show you how we solved this problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Split APKs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Using Gradle in Android Studio, we were able to generate split APKs.<\/a> There’s an APK exported for each phone type. They contain resources needed only for a specific density or ABI. The download size reduced, but users still had to download 11\u201313MB for each update. The next step was to figure out how users could download only the new data they need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n