Android increases app size limit to 4GB

Android developers, until now, had to limit their applications to 50 MB, so that Android users could download apps comfortably, without it taking too much of a toll on bandwidth or phone memory. However, now Android’s opened the gate and is allowing developers to sell apps at a 4GB maximum. This should help with applications that are high quality 3D games, which require more resources. According to the Android Developers blog, the size of developers’ APK files will still be restricted to 50 MB, but developers can add expansions to their APKs. Each app can have up to two extensions of 2GB maximum each. The Android Market will host those files to offer developers convenience. Users will see the size of the app and all the files and extensions, before they download and/or purchase.

MAWR bigger apps

Android says that on most newer devices, when a user downloads an app from the Android Market expansion files download automatically. The refund period will begin once the expansions have finished downloading. Older devices will download expansions the first time the application is used through a downloader library. Android says. “While you can use the two expansion files any way you wish, we recommend that one serve as the initial download and be rarely if ever updated; the second can be smaller and serve as a “patch carrier,” getting versioned with each major release.”

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Android users with a good amount of onboard storage should be fine to download these bigger apps, but users with more limiting on board storage might face problems. The iOS app limit currently stands at 2GB, but given that most iOS devices are pretty standard in their starting onboard storage limits (usually 16GB devices with 8GB devices launched months later), bigger apps aren’t too much of a problem.