Why are Android builds so big nowadays?

Solar2D Android
#1

I recently ported a game from IOS to android. Its already optimized quite well but its very graphic orientated so it is still 36MB for IOS. Now I build for Android and it adds over 20MB . Where is all this extra data coming from. It forces me over the Google 50MB threshold so I have to start removing and optimizing to a point where quality is affected. I know there are extra bits and pieces added - it reminds me of before Corona stripped out plugins  that we didn’t need. Its like they have put them back in again!

I am comparing an Android APK file (59MB) with an IOS ZIp (36MB) builds for this example

#2

By default, when you build your app for iOS, Xcode will go through and do an instance of PNGcrush on your PNG files.  This can reduce the file size of them greatly, without affecting the quality much or at all.

This does not happen for Android.  You might want to run PNGcrush (or something similar - like https://tinypng.com/) on your PNG files yourself before building for Android.  (I highly recommend backing up the originals so if any do have an unsatisfactory difference, you can revert back.)

Definitely not sure if that is the issue or not, but that might explain some of the difference.

There definitely is a code size difference between the two, however.

Last I checked, the file size difference between my iOS build and my Google Play build was about 7.5MB.

#3

I have some large size graphics so I am using JPGs for those and I already stripped quality down to 50%. There are not that many PNGs actually.

PNG files are not efficient on large areas (obviously much better for buttons and small transparent objects).

It would be interesting to know where this extra data is coming from and if I can strip that out. I am not using any plugins at all.

#4

Its been suggested that it could be the widgets. I would love to strip them out if possible. I never use them,

#5

By default, when you build your app for iOS, Xcode will go through and do an instance of PNGcrush on your PNG files.  This can reduce the file size of them greatly, without affecting the quality much or at all.

This does not happen for Android.  You might want to run PNGcrush (or something similar - like https://tinypng.com/) on your PNG files yourself before building for Android.  (I highly recommend backing up the originals so if any do have an unsatisfactory difference, you can revert back.)

Definitely not sure if that is the issue or not, but that might explain some of the difference.

There definitely is a code size difference between the two, however.

Last I checked, the file size difference between my iOS build and my Google Play build was about 7.5MB.

#6

I have some large size graphics so I am using JPGs for those and I already stripped quality down to 50%. There are not that many PNGs actually.

PNG files are not efficient on large areas (obviously much better for buttons and small transparent objects).

It would be interesting to know where this extra data is coming from and if I can strip that out. I am not using any plugins at all.

#7

Its been suggested that it could be the widgets. I would love to strip them out if possible. I never use them,