Some time ago, the UP main technology old boy of station B mentioned in the video that he found that the WeChat 1.0 version released in January 2011, the Android APK installation package is only 457KB, and the current WeChat installation package is 257MB, which is equivalent to 11 years of expansion 575 times. Not only on WeChat but in the comment area, people complained that almost all mobile app installation packages in recent years are rapidly growing in size and occupying memory.
In order to find out more specifically about the changes in the size of app installation packages over the years, we checked the historical version data of commonly used apps on Wandoujia (a marketplace that provides Android software, Android applications, and Android game download resources).
In June this year, Questmobile announced 58 mobile apps with over 100 million users in the first half of 2022, of which 50 apps can find historical version data in Wandoujia. Below is an analysis of the 50 apps.
To download common apps, the installation package alone takes up 7 GB
In 2017, Aurora Data released the App Memory Report. Statistics show that the average number of apps installed on domestic mobile phones has reached more than 50. By the third quarter of 2020, that number had increased to 56. However, according to our statistics, now just download all 50 commonly used apps, and the volume of the installation package alone has reached 7180.51MB, which is 7.01G. But according to the initial size that can be counted on the pea pod, the initial installation package of these apps only needs 1143.46MB, which is 1.14G.
If you only look at the top 20 apps, the total size of their installation packages has changed from 0.58GB to 4.98GB, which is about 8 times the original size. Not only that, in the Android app store, the size of the installation package displayed is the size of the compressed file package. When the app is actually downloaded to the mobile phone, there will be a decompression process. Plus many apps automatically write default information during the download process. This means that the phone needs to reserve more space than the App installation package to download successfully.
Typically, an app takes up 1.5 to 3 times the size of its installation package. Taking WeChat as an example, the WeChat installation package size is 230MB in the app store, but after decompression, it becomes more than 500MB. Calculated according to the occupied space = installation package size * 2.5, it takes about 17.6G to fit these 50 commonly used APPs, and this does not include the various caches brought by using the APP, nor does it include other niches you need to use the APP.
In 8 years, the QQ installation package has increased by 37 times, and the Douyin Express Edition has increased by 79% every year. Among the 50 commonly used mobile apps, who takes up the most space? Who has changed the most? We first found the top five apps with the largest installation package size and counted the changes in their installation package sizes over the years since their launch. The bulky installation packages are mainly game apps and social apps.
If you look at the average annual growth rate of installation package volume, the ranking is different. The installation package size of Douyin Express Edition has the fastest growth rate. On September 2, 2019, the super-speed version of the app was launched. Three years after its launch, the installation package size increased from 13.13MB to 75.11MB, with an average annual increase of 79%. Followed by ABC Mobile Banking, QQ, UC Browser, and Douyin.
The growth of different types of apps is not the same. The installation package of the game app is usually not small in the initial state, and the update iteration is not slow. Taking the mobile game representative of King of Glory as an example, its installation package was 207.02MB when it was launched in 2015. Because of the continuous launch of new heroes, new skins, adding new gameplay, and modes, and optimizing the game experience, 7 years later, now, The King of Glory has 2 G in the installation package alone.
The initial installation package of a social app is relatively small, but it is updated frequently, and it "gets a little bigger each time", resulting in a large final installation package. Taking QQ, whose installation package volume has increased by 37 times in 8 years, as an example, the main change of each update of QQ lies in the increase of functions. Take the 2020 version of QQv8.4.18 as an example. Compared with the past, its main changes are:
Added "My Mood" to the online status to send mood signals to friends and share happy moments
Added new characters to group chat, draw cards to collect characters, and make it cooler to wear it
Group chat messages can be selected as group essence and displayed on the group chat data card for more convenient viewing
The group chat has added the king's record, the rank achievement can be easily viewed, and the group friends are invited to open the black and increase the score. Different from social software, Douyin Express, the fastest-growing version, has only two main functions since its launch. One is to brush short videos, and the other is to do tasks (such as watching videos) to receive gold coins. It basically does not add extra features, and almost every update is to improve the video speed and optimize the viewing experience.
The functions of banking apps are more vertical. The reason for the change in the size of the installation package is the increase in actual demand and the development of the Internet. For example, the Agricultural Bank of China, which ranks second in terms of growth rate, has several updates related to technology: online real-name registration, AI Face recognition, APP and related applet linkage, etc.
Apps from "Small and Different" to "Large and Similar"
The larger installation package means the updated iteration of functions and the optimization of experience. However, are these additions and optimizations really necessary for users? Take WeChat, which is commonly used by people, as an example.
Zhang Xiaolong described WeChat as a "small and beautiful" APP. When WeChat 1.0 was launched in 2011, the Android APK installation package was only 457KB in size. In 2014, the WeChat installation package was less than 25MB. By 2022, the WeChat installation package will exceed 250MB.
It can be seen that from 2011 to 2015, WeChat's main development and improvement functions are around social networking, and the core is the chat function: WeChat group, emoticon package, voice, shake, and so on. Later, functions such as payment, collection, sending video, and video numbers were gradually added. There are also some controversial features, such as chat message retraction, pat...
The "small and beautiful" WeChat has now become "big and comprehensive": the payment function makes WeChat a "mobile wallet", the video number makes it "another Douyin", and the applet makes it N kinds of A collection of mini-games and commonly used apps...
The UP main technology old boy of station B has used the reverse engineering WeChat installation package and found that in WeChat 1.0 version, only 199 files were used to realize the core function - chat. In the 8.0.24 version in July 2022, there are 12,639 files, and all the codes have skyrocketed by more than 500 times. That is to say, most of the files and codes are used to implement other functions: video, games, taxis, food delivery, express delivery...
Nowadays, if you want to do anything with your mobile phone, you don't need to download a corresponding APP. If you want to buy groceries, you don’t need to download apps such as Hema, Meituan, or Dingdong. You can enter directly from the WeChat applet or Alipay interface. This reduces the trouble of downloading another app to a certain extent, but the problem is that although WeChat limits the size of the applet (2MB), it does not solve the cache that will be generated as long as the applet is launched.
In addition, for those who can't give up the social functions of WeChat but do not need functions such as mini-programs and video accounts, the "update iteration" of WeChat is a burden on the mobile phone space. If you look closely, you will find that many apps whose installation packages are rapidly getting bigger actually come from or are controlled by leading Internet companies: Tencent owns WeChat, QQ, King of Glory, QQ Music... Alibaba owns Taobao, Alipay, DingTalk, UC browser... ByteDance has Douyin, Toutiao...
On the one hand, it is due to the rapid development of technology and the normal iteration of functions; on the other hand, the APP is constantly updated and revised, becoming larger and more complete, and a large part of the reason is the snatch and retention of users. So you can see that Douyin, which focuses on short videos, and Xiaohongshu, which is famous for planting grass, all have a group chat function; the music software QQ Music has a "play a play" game; the shopping software Pinduoduo, originally there is an A "recommended" entry has become "a lot of videos" at the beginning of this year...
Perhaps as a netizen said: "One day your mobile phone space is not enough, you can only delete some apps, but the first thing you want to delete is definitely not just-needed software like WeChat, for example, there is a video number in WeChat, you may I will uninstall Douyin. For example, in your Meituan, there are entrances to buy food, buy movie tickets, scan shared bicycles, and take taxis, and you can uninstall apps such as Hema and Didi…”
Comentarios