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Android Android and iOS app update process compared

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WiiUBricker

WiiUBricker

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Well I have both Android and iOS devices and recently noticed something worth mentioning here. It's about how Android and iOS apply updates to existing apps. On iOS, if an update is available the update is downloaded and applied to the installed app. But on Android if an update is available, you always download the complete app and re-install it. Lets say I have the same 1GB game on Android and iOS and a small 25MB bug fix update is available. On iOS you only download the 25MB update and apply it to the installed game. On Android however, you download 1GB + 25MB just for a small bug fix. That's a huge negative of Android. Why is that? Is this just how Android works?
 
Have you tried other sources on the Android? Either way, it could be because it's built on Linux. On the distros I use, it generally downloads the entire package whenever there's an update for an application, unless the application can update itself internally.
I could be wrong, I haven't really messed much with Android or that many distributions of Linux OSs, either.

At least Google's application store offers a "Download only over Wi-Fi" option.
 
Last edited by TecXero,
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android/play store does do that, on the kitkat plus anyway.

I also noticed that TWEWY did do that. but i think its to do with that it was just too broken for 5.0 and needed a big fix.
 
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WiiUBricker said:
What else do you think? I just updated The World Ends With You on Android. The update was 770 MB. The game's file size is 770MB.
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Just one app isn't really a fair comparison. You'd need to check a bunch other apps by different companies before really being able to say anything about this, honestly.
 
Arras said:
Just one app isn't really a fair comparison. You'd need to check a bunch other apps by different companies before really being able to say anything about this, honestly.
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I didn't say I only compared one app. Else I wouldn't have made this topic. There are other apps (all games): Asphalt 8, WWE Immortals, Modern Combat series, Final Fantasy VI, Secret of Mana.
 
It's very easy to update by replacing the whole app. Android does this by default, no extra line of code needed, no extra permission required... Just install new package as if there was no app installed. Maybe developers were lazy and didn't bother to apply incremental updates
 
magic 2015 was like 1.5 gigs, one time while using the tablet I was randomly hit by an 800 MB update and no way to stop it

it wasn't long before I realized that tablets and games don't mix. (big games at least)
 
i noticed this also , but not having iOS devices i wouldnt have compared the two , i guess as i use my android for only small throw away games and apps , its easier to just reissue the app/game , but its lazy on those bigger apps for sure.
 
Depends on the developer. It isn't common to do on smaller apps usually since it doesn't make too much of a difference, and it's easier for developers to just upload whatever new build they were working on. I would assume that it's the same way for large games too, since everything is already compressed into the APK, devs are too lazy to go beyond that. It doesn't really bother me all too much, since I don't do automatic updates anyways. I like to check the changelogs before I go on with it, but that's probably because I like to beta test some applications.
 

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