Android Apps Can Now Be 4Gb in Size!

This doesn’t bode well for many tablets I’m sure, or maybe not… Today the Android team announced that app sizes can now be 4gigs in size, but the actual APK files can only be 50mb at most. The main APK is the 50mb, but developers can add to that with expansion files up to 2gb in size, with a maximum of 4gb total. The idea of the 50mb limit is to make sure it will still fit on your devices without any storage issues and then you’ll be able to download the rest at pretty much like we do now. The 4gb limit of course now allows for much larger games and apps, so I’m sure we’ll be seeing some interesting things coming in the future. The increased size should not only allow for larger apps and games but in regards to games we should see better quality in the form of graphics or textures. An interesting note is that it says the refund period won’t start until you’ve downloaded the add-on files, then again it’s automatic so I don’t think it matters much as you won’t really be able to play the game or use the app until you’ve got the expansion files anyway most likely.

quote:

Android applications have historically been limited to a maximum size of 50MB. This works for most apps, and smaller is usually better — every megabyte you add makes it harder for your users to download and get started. However, some types of apps, like high-quality 3D interactive games, require more local resources.So today, we’re expanding the Android app size limit to 4GB. The size of your APK file will still be limited to 50MB to ensure secure on-device storage, but you can now attach expansion files to your APK.

Via: Android Developers: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2012/03/android-apps-break-50mb-barrier.html