App Size Strategy

November 24, 2023
·
Chuyi

Implementing new functionalities such as a button or an image to beautify or enhance an app might seem exciting. For existing users, these features enhance the user experience; for potential users, they act as an incentive for them to sign up for the app. However, this addition comes at a cost — increased application size. The increase in app size holds significant implications for performances and user accessibility and most importantly, installation conversion rates.

Understanding App Size?

App size can be broken down into four categories

  1. Download size: The size during app download.
  2. Install size: The space occupied after installation.
  3. Storage size: The total space consumed while in use, including caches.
  4. Update size: The size when updating the app.

The importance of app size

In an increasingly digital world, app size plays a pivotal role, especially in emerging markets where users often have devices with limited storage. A small increase in app size can significantly affect installation rates.

Google conducted an experiment on the impact of app size on user behaviour. In this experiment, users were provided with versions of applications that had been intentionally increased in size. The findings were significant: for each additional 6MB in app size, there was a 1% drop in the rate at which users installed the app after downloading it. This trend indicates a clear relationship between app size and user engagement, underscoring the potential for lost opportunities when app size is not optimized.

How implementing guardrails in place help to ensure control over app size

To manage app size for our developer community chatapp, our developers have integrated guardrails throughout the entire development process. This includes pre-merge checks for pull requests to assess their impact on app size and post-merge monitoring to track changes. Establishing a threshold for app size increase helps in maintaining control over the growth.

Challenges in optimizations

Optimizing app size isn't straightforward. It involves trade-offs between size, performance, and readability. Sometimes, structural limitations of programming languages or operating systems make size reduction challenging.

Managing app size

To effectively manage app size, we use a comprehensive set of tools and metrics. Our goal is to balance the introduction of new features with responsible size management, ensuring that we make educated decisions that benefit both our users and the environment.

Looking to optimize your app's size without compromising its functionality? Let us know how we can help!