Reduce Android App Apk With These Top 7 Approaches!

Android is one of the most popular operating systems due to its user-friendly interface and accessibility to millions of free themes. That’s the reason you will find maximum Android smartphone users across the globe. As per Statistic reports 2019, Android 8.0 Oreo had the major share among all the versions.

This is why competition in the market is increasing tremendously, pressurizing Android developers to deliver better apps. However, we’re mindful about the fact that Google Play Store is already overflowing with thousands of apps and the addition of new apps is a continuous process. Therefore, how you can achieve success? Simply by trimming down the overall size of the Android app!

Android app developers understand that adding too much high-quality graphics or content can negatively impact the reloading time of apps, leading to the number of clicks offs. According to a recently released survey, every 6MB increase in APK size may lead to a 1% drop in the downloads.

Here, in this article, we’ve outlined some approaches that can adapt to cut down Android APK size, yet keep it engaging, rich and vibrant.

Optimize Proguard

Shrinking your codes is always better and this tool will eventually help in this process efficiently. You can optimize this app for reducing the code size and develop a rich, vibrant, and innovative mobile app. However, you should always test the app after using this tool as it changes a few symbols in the app, which may hamper the experience of users.

The Smaller, the Better

Being a developer, you should never underestimate the size of the app during the development process. This is one of the common mistakes that developers commit in the rush of adding content, high-end graphics and a lot more. But if you want to target a huge audience, then keeping the overall size of the app small is crucial. As there are many Android-powered smartphones in the market with limited RAM and storage, which will impact your downloads. Users don’t want to see this on their mobile device and uninstall your app.

Opt for APK Analyzer to Reduce the Size

You might already know that the APK analyzer is available in an Android studio that highlights the aspect that is larger and adding to increased size. Now here’s an instance, in which an app called Anti-Theft screen lock APK is shared.

The raw size of the app is 3.1MB, but after applying the analyzer it has been compressed to 2.5MB roughly. Three components contributing to the large size of the app, which include:

• Res- This folder actually has all the files under the name res, which basically contain images, raw files, menu files, and icons.
• Classes.dex- This file contains all the byte codes of your java code that will run on your DMV or ART.
• Resources.arsc- This file holds all the valuable resources, containing all the data that you have under different value folders.

Optimize PNG Images and JPEG Files

You can reduce png images without losing image quality by using tools like OptiPNG or PNGCrush. These tools will help you attain quality in images at the same time reduce their sizes as well. Moreover, by utilizing Pain.NET you can compress the size of JPEG files also.

Squash out Unused Resources

For this process, you can utilize an android resource remover, which helps you clean out all the unused resources gathered in the project from Android Lint.

Elimination of Debugging Information

We as a leading Android Development Company always recommend that our android developers eliminate the debug-related functionality from the application. This data is generally not utilized by Android to run the applications. Thus, removing it from the app is an ideal solution to save more space for your app.

Say No to Duplication

It is vital to make sure that you don’t hold any duplicated functionality file in your database; it will eventually lead to having unnecessary files in your APK. Being a developer, it is important to understand which APIs you are utilizing in the development process along with their functionality. There can be scenarios where one API is already doing the function of second API.

Wrapping Up

By adopting the above-mentioned approaches in your app development you can significantly reduce the file size.

Still, if you’re facing challenges in the mobile app development process, then hire android app developers of Concetto Labs. We help you accomplish your goals by delivering scalable, efficient, and reliable Android apps.

Now don’t waste your time and shoot an email at info@concettolabs.com.