Hello all,
The initial size of my application was 73 MB. Since it has few features, I’m worried for the future. I decided to delete 3 screens, dozens of variables & recycled the other ones, and to reduce the size of my pictures (from 2MB each on average to 150ko each), since the size an app with 6 to 9 blank screens is about 35MB. And yet I’m stuck at 68MB 
What can I do?
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the old thread on this question. But if you create an empty app (one screen no controls) you will see the apk is ~35MB. Your variables are not the primary issue. The bad new is that Thunkable apps will be fat and bloated. The good news is that the content the designers control (variables, screens, etc.) are pretty small contributors to the total package size.
@drted I think this is the old topic you were referring to?
@yannick.kaminskyczgv The good news is that we have a new release scheduled for later today that will result in your .apk file being a few MB smaller.
Just out of curiosity, have any of your users actually complained that 68 MB is too big? Do you have some feedback on Google Play etc that you can link us to?
Thanks.
We ran into similar issues with our first app SwagShare, we used lots of graphics assets for backgrounds, buttons, etc, which just complicated the app and led to bugs, crashes, etc. SwagShare was 17 mb and 8 screens, most of that was graphic assets like gradient backgrounds and buttons.
What are the pictures being used for? We’d advise you if its for design use component parameters: background color, colored borders, drop shadow, and rounded corners. Here’s a link to our app StartShare for reference. We only use PNGs for logos and icons, not backgrounds. Our app by comparison is 37MB, has 64 screens, arranged in stack navigators and tab navigators, so it’s mostly code and not graphics assets.
Hello!
We haven’t done a full roll-out (well, actually we have, but it’s just a test) so we don’t have feedback from unknown users. However, we did an internal test track in the organization I’m working for, and some people were surprised by the size of the application. It’s not a problem for them, since they have enough memory, but still…
Oh ok. Thank you for this information, I’ll look into that!
Thunkable was based on Facebook React Native (you see this when the app crashes in the Thunkable Live app, it shows you all the java code), which means there will be a bit of left over code since this is a cross platform SDK, not the Android Studio. I’m studying Graphic Information Technology in University/College, we learn a bit about how these kinds of tools (app and website builders) are built and how they work.
We did a full rollout of our app StartShare in Google Play and there’s no crashes or ANRs (Application Not Respondings) on our developer page so far. We released a major feature upgrade too (attatching URLs to listings and regular social/brand posts that earn 5 rewards points in the app instead of just purchasable content listings) and we aren’t running into many issues.
That being said, make sure all your code is arranged to load certain important variables and call APIs first before your “If Then” functions that load only certain visual components based on parameters. Use the Thunkable Live app for testing, and make sure you test everything repeatedly and That was the biggest issue with the virst version of StartShare: loading a screen quickly and reliably on the first try. We fixed it by rearranging our code. Thunkable is based on javascript written Facebook React Native, so familiarize yourself with how java executes code in a “First In-Last Out” order and code your app accordingly. http://tutorials.jenkov.com/java-collections/stack.html#:~:text=Java%20Stack%20Basics,-A%20Stack%20is&text=This%20is%20also%20referred%20to,the%20beginning%20of%20the%20queue.
Hi there!
I am a former sketchware coder and I was trying to migrate a 3-4mb apk into Thunkable X, and I am just into the first screen and my apk has 39mb.
I thought it is a very nice touch to code indo android and ios at the same time, but with this apk size I am quiting thunkable.
Having ~35 MB of data before adding our own does mean we’re never going to be able to make an app that’s 3 or 4 MB in size with Thunkable. But I haven’t been too concerned about the app sizes yet. They are bigger than I hoped for but people are still downloading them.