App Thinning

[MR-LIZARD]

Mentioned briefly during the Keynote but App Thinning sounds like a potential godsend to devices with smaller on-onboard memory. If devs can take advantage of this I assume this will eliminate iPhones downloading iPad only resources (and vice versa) from universal apps.

When I upgraded to a 6+ I went for the 64gb as my old 16gb was feeling jammed. However this would help to really stretch the 64gb space even further!


Will this also allow for smaller app updates? I'm not sure from the wording but does this potentially open the door for delta updates rather than a whole download of updated apps? Even with unlimited data this would be great for speed!

App Thinning

With iOS 9, the App Store allows users to download apps that are specifically optimized for their device. This means apps will download, install and launch faster while taking up less storage space than before. Build support for slicing, on-demand resources, and bitcode, and give your users smaller, more convenient updates to your apps.

https://developer.apple.com/ios/pre-release/

 

[nuckinfutz]

Fecalbook take up 270MB on my 5s. That ridic. App packages must get smaller. I was shuddering to think about what assets for the iPad Pro were going to cost me in bloated app space. Timing was just right for Apple.

 

[RichardC300]

^^^ Facebook takes up just over 300 MB for me and over 400 MB for my gf. Ridiculous. I didn't catch this app thinning thing. I'm gonna take a look at the keynote again. Curious now.

 

[nightstalkerz]

Will this also allow for smaller app updates? I'm not sure from the wording but does this potentially open the door for delta updates rather than a whole download of updated apps? Even with unlimited data this would be great for speed!

iOS has had delta updates since iOS 6 but it was up to developers to take advantage of it (most don't).

The app thinning just means splitting out the resources like images so that they can be downloaded on demand so you are correct on that.

 

[nightstalkerz]

For Facebook, app thinning probably won't help since Facebook uses all that space after it has been installed for caching content you never see again.

 

[Squid7085]

The one that boggles me is the UPS app, a strictly text based content app with no graphics is 100+ MB for the app itself. Although that is likely just crappy programing.

 

[C DM]

Fecalbook take up 270MB on my 5s. That ridic. App packages must get smaller. I was shuddering to think about what assets for the iPad Pro were going to cost me in bloated app space. Timing was just right for Apple.

^^^ Facebook takes up just over 300 MB for me and over 400 MB for my gf. Ridiculous. I didn't catch this app thinning thing. I'm gonna take a look at the keynote again. Curious now.

Most of that is caching of content as you use the app. If you uninstall the app and install it again the size will be much smaller and represents the app itself.

 

[MR-LIZARD]

iOS has had delta updates since iOS 6 but it was up to developers to take advantage of it (most don't).

I didn't realise that. Thank you. It was the following from Apple's developer website that made me think it was a new thing:

...give your users smaller, more convenient updates to your apps.