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How Uber Deals with Large iOS App Size

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Re: How Uber Deals with Large iOS App Size

#21

Post by Scoundreller »

jedberg wrote: post #17
bhupy wrote: post #7

An old (but fantastic) comment from the previous discussion about Uber's app size that addresses why the Uber app is so big: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25376346

The summary of that comment is "we have to include a ton of stuff that will never be relevant to most users like payments APIs that only work in India." This is why some global apps have different apps for different countries. It's a trade off. Would you rather have a single fat Uber app, or have to download Uber India when you arrive there?

Personally? A single fat app. Less fumbling around when I land somewhere to get their localized app, which will presumably only be available from that country’s App Store that’s inaccessible before I land there.

If I have to deal with the airport’s wifi... I don’t want to depend on downloading a 100mb binary over it.

Maybe they could have a local and global version available, but that’s already making it more complicated.

Re: How Uber Deals with Large iOS App Size

#22

Post by jakub_g »

jbverschoor wrote: post #15
jamestenglish wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Important to a user in 1 region/country. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25376346 Uber is a global app, so the other 9/10s of the code is for all the features and functionality you'll never see outside your region since there is currently no way to split up binaries by region.

328 mb more than a complete OS. No doubt they can EASILY trim 30-60%. Asset optimization, stripping SDK libraries and you're done. It's like graffiti.. the app is so big already, that the devs don't give a damn about optimizing.. why bother if they are just A/B-feature tests? 30mb for some unoptimized screens for example

If you click the link OP posted and read the previous thread you will see they can "easily" do ass. They already spent millions in engineering time to cut the app size as the company existence literally depended on it when Apple's bundle size limit was 150 MB.

If your app is serving hundreds of cities with specific per-city customizations and all code and assets are in a single binary, life gets tough.

Re: How Uber Deals with Large iOS App Size

#23

Post by adrr »

km3r wrote: post #9
ohiovr wrote: post #2

I'd take a sledge hammer to it. The app doesn't have to be an app at all. It could simply be a stream with an os interactive overlay that intercepts touches. Like a thin client for phones.

A stream may also make it harder for the app to work in areas with poor connection. Which, given Uber's use case, is probably a likely scenario and one that could lose a lot of customers to competitors.

Pull it on first run and cache it. If you're in place with a poor internet connection, you aren't going to be able to download the app from app store any way. I am going to assume 80% of the code packaged in the app in the app is never used by a majority of their customer base. Like all the business features where a company give their employees allowances.

Re: How Uber Deals with Large iOS App Size

#24

Post by johncolanduoni »

ketralnis wrote: post #19
bhupy wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say this is the most comprehensive breakdown: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25376346

Let's say there are a hundred screens in the app and the app is 300mb. Does it really take 3mb of source code, about 3/4 of a bible, to render one screen? (I do understand that source code isn't what ships in the binary, but for the sake argument let's say they're 1:1 in size.)

The argument you’ll have by saying that for its sake will be pretty useless, because source code and machine code are nowhere near 1:1 in size.

Re: How Uber Deals with Large iOS App Size

#25

Post by Farbklex »

jedberg wrote: post #17
bhupy wrote: post #7

An old (but fantastic) comment from the previous discussion about Uber's app size that addresses why the Uber app is so big: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25376346

The summary of that comment is "we have to include a ton of stuff that will never be relevant to most users like payments APIs that only work in India." This is why some global apps have different apps for different countries. It's a trade off. Would you rather have a single fat Uber app, or have to download Uber India when you arrive there?

The Google Play Store solved this problem with dynamic feature modules. Either at install time or later on, you can let users download only certain parts of the app. All with a single app store entry and app bundle.

We use this for devices which don't have NFC. If the device doesn't support it, then there is no reason to download the module for identification via passport NFC scans.

Re: How Uber Deals with Large iOS App Size

#26

Post by superkuh »

Uber is just a scam to launder saudi blood money through softbank. There is zero chance that human driven cars will go away. And self-driving cars cannot drive on roads with human drivers. Uber is in the later stages of the scam now and have "sold" (actually, they gave 400 million USD to the company they "sold" the division too) their self driving setup. They've admitted the only business model that would make them profitable is impossible. It's over. They're just trying to take the money and run now.

That their "app" is large is irrelevant to the scam.

Re: How Uber Deals with Large iOS App Size

#27

Post by spoonjim »

jedberg wrote: post #17
bhupy wrote: post #7

An old (but fantastic) comment from the previous discussion about Uber's app size that addresses why the Uber app is so big: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25376346

The summary of that comment is "we have to include a ton of stuff that will never be relevant to most users like payments APIs that only work in India." This is why some global apps have different apps for different countries. It's a trade off. Would you rather have a single fat Uber app, or have to download Uber India when you arrive there?

I love that it’s one app. I remember landing in Delhi from San Francisco and the Uber app worked perfectly and I was so astonished. Effectively nothing else translates seamlessly like that. Combined with the incredible quality control on the vehicles side (every car I got in India had a seatbelt, where close to 0 taxis you’d get on the street would), I knew it was a very high functioning company to execute like this.

Re: How Uber Deals with Large iOS App Size

#28

Post by mkipper »

bhupy wrote: post #18
jedberg wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The summary of that comment is "we have to include a ton of stuff that will never be relevant to most users like payments APIs that only work in India." This is why some global apps have different apps for different countries. It's a trade off. Would you rather have a single fat Uber app, or have to download Uber India when you arrive there?

> This is why some global apps have different apps for different countries Do you have some examples? Genuinely curious. To my knowledge, most of the major FAANG apps are single-binary.

Dedicated apps for fast food chains are one example. A quick search gave me "Burger King India", "PizzaHut Egypt" and "KFC UAE".

Why? I have no idea.

Re: How Uber Deals with Large iOS App Size

#29

Post by dangwu »

Scoundreller wrote: post #21
jedberg wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The summary of that comment is "we have to include a ton of stuff that will never be relevant to most users like payments APIs that only work in India." This is why some global apps have different apps for different countries. It's a trade off. Would you rather have a single fat Uber app, or have to download Uber India when you arrive there?

Personally? A single fat app. Less fumbling around when I land somewhere to get their localized app, which will presumably only be available from that country’s App Store that’s inaccessible before I land there. If I have to deal with the airport’s wifi... I don’t want to depend on downloading a 100mb binary over it. Maybe they could have a local and global version available, but that’s already making it more complic…

The downside is trying to download Uber for the first time when arriving at an airport. However, I think Uber is so ubiquitous now that it's the likely to already be installed.

Re: How Uber Deals with Large iOS App Size

#30

Post by jedberg »

bhupy wrote: post #18
jedberg wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The summary of that comment is "we have to include a ton of stuff that will never be relevant to most users like payments APIs that only work in India." This is why some global apps have different apps for different countries. It's a trade off. Would you rather have a single fat Uber app, or have to download Uber India when you arrive there?

> This is why some global apps have different apps for different countries Do you have some examples? Genuinely curious. To my knowledge, most of the major FAANG apps are single-binary.

eBay is one that comes to mind right away (unless they changed it recently).

Google Pay is another one. They have a dedicate app in Singapore.

It seems like a lot of them went to single apps when they realized they could download data packs within the app. Stuff like Rick Steves guided tour apps used to be separate per city, but now it's a single app where you download the data for a certain city.

But I think you're right that all the major FAANG apps are single-binary.

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