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I shaved 187MB off United Airlines' 439MB iOS app

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Re: I shaved 187MB off United Airlines' 439MB iOS app

#41

Post by 10000truths »

commandlinefan wrote: post #7

> it is fair to say this area of app development is complicated to understand. Not really, but it's also actively suppressed. If they can make as much money with a 439MB app as they can with a 10MB app, why would they waste any time or effort trying to save you a few minutes of download time? If anything, I expect this to get worse, as management is constantly pushing for adoption of frameworks that (in their imagina…

Actively suppressed by whom? Is there some shadowy cabal of executive saboteurs gleefully cackling at the idea of getting away with a bloated app? Because it’s plainly obvious that a bloated app benefits neither the consumer nor the business.

It costs consumer time waiting for a large app to download, and it wastes consumer money by burning up quota on metered connections. It costs the business because apps have a size limit, and hitting those limits means no more features until you can reduce that size.

Re: I shaved 187MB off United Airlines' 439MB iOS app

#43

Post by dont__panic »

MikeCapone wrote: post #19
mojuba wrote: post #5

But even the stripped version is way way too much for an app like this. I can imagine it's layers upon layers of poor, bad and terrible architectural and organizational decisions.

I think the Stripe app is like 20 megs, Overcast even smaller than that.

Just checked the other day: one of my favorite apps this year, Hyperweb, is just 18.2 MB. Granted, it's only a browser extension for adblocking, styling, etc (sort of a replacement for all of the various Firefox addons I wish I could use on iOS), but the competition, AdGuard, clocks in at nearly 500 MB.

I really wonder what some of these apps are doing with this space. My banking app clocks in at 400 MB as well.

Re: I shaved 187MB off United Airlines' 439MB iOS app

#44

Post by tyingq »

MikeCapone wrote: post #19
mojuba wrote: post #5

But even the stripped version is way way too much for an app like this. I can imagine it's layers upon layers of poor, bad and terrible architectural and organizational decisions.

I think the Stripe app is like 20 megs, Overcast even smaller than that.

I don't think the Stripe app is a good comparison. Airline apps have to cover shopping, booking, cancellations, seat selection, loyalty programs, check-in, bar code generation and scanning, and so on. Typically with broad support for different currencies, languages, etc, etc. 439mb is obviously not right, but I would expect the app to be fairly large.

Re: I shaved 187MB off United Airlines' 439MB iOS app

#46

Post by sneak »

stingraycharles wrote: post #31
mojuba wrote: post #5

But even the stripped version is way way too much for an app like this. I can imagine it's layers upon layers of poor, bad and terrible architectural and organizational decisions.

I’d like to approach this differently, and think about what it would have cost United Airlines to do it “the right way”, versus what value it brings them. I’m the first to say that this utter bloat is terrible, but most people aren’t really bothered by it. And I can only imagine that they outsourced their app development completely and like to keep costs low. From that perspective, it’s probably much more pragmatic t…

If Apple would allow web notifications, most apps wouldn't need to be apps at all, but could simply be webpages that get bookmarked to the launcher. The UX for the user would be, for most non-game apps, identical.

The problem is that purchases would no longer be subject to Apple's 10x industry standard (30% instead of 3%) captive credit card payment processing service (for apps), so no web notifications in MobileSafari that might undermine platform control and payment processing monopoly. Apple, of course, will say this is about protecting users from notification spam, and sidestep the inconvenient facts that it protects an Apple cash cow and locks developers and users into a closed and proprietary platform.

Re: I shaved 187MB off United Airlines' 439MB iOS app

#47

Post by arcticbull »

stingraycharles wrote: post #31
mojuba wrote: post #5

But even the stripped version is way way too much for an app like this. I can imagine it's layers upon layers of poor, bad and terrible architectural and organizational decisions.

I’d like to approach this differently, and think about what it would have cost United Airlines to do it “the right way”, versus what value it brings them. I’m the first to say that this utter bloat is terrible, but most people aren’t really bothered by it. And I can only imagine that they outsourced their app development completely and like to keep costs low. From that perspective, it’s probably much more pragmatic t…

> I’d like to approach this differently, and think about what it would have cost United Airlines to do it “the right way”, versus what value it brings them.

For a 5-screen 50MB app, sure. For a 5-screen 500MB app that falls pretty flat.

[edit] You could fit all of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 or Final Fantasy VII for PS2 in the same amount of space.

Re: I shaved 187MB off United Airlines' 439MB iOS app

#48

Post by arcticbull »

sneak wrote: post #46
stingraycharles wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d like to approach this differently, and think about what it would have cost United Airlines to do it “the right way”, versus what value it brings them. I’m the first to say that this utter bloat is terrible, but most people aren’t really bothered by it. And I can only imagine that they outsourced their app development completely and like to keep costs low. From that perspective, it’s probably much more pragmatic t…

If Apple would allow web notifications, most apps wouldn't need to be apps at all, but could simply be webpages that get bookmarked to the launcher. The UX for the user would be, for most non-game apps, identical. The problem is that purchases would no longer be subject to Apple's 10x industry standard (30% instead of 3%) captive credit card payment processing service (for apps), so no web notifications in MobileSafa…

I strongly suspect the bulk of this 500MB is DRM frameworks for their in-flight video playback that they can't or don't want to support in-browser. Safari kicks video playback over to the United app each time you select something to watch and it does what appears to be a multi-stage hand-off dance.
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