Why are app sizes so big now?
Article Summary
Bank of America's app is 448 MB. McDonald's is 251 MB. When did ordering fries require half a gigabyte?
A Reddit discussion sparked by shocking app size data reveals 15 popular apps (banking, retail, social) totaling 4.76 GB of storage. Developers and engineers weighed in on why modern apps have become so bloated.
Key Takeaways
- Cross-platform frameworks bundle entire libraries when apps only need 5% of functionality
- High-res assets for multiple screen sizes and languages multiply storage requirements
- Feature development wins over optimization: storage constraints no longer drive priorities
- Native SwiftUI apps could be ~50 MB versus 300-400 MB cross-platform equivalents
Critical Insight
App bloat stems from framework overhead and deprioritized optimization, not lazy developers, as storage abundance removed the constraint that once forced efficiency.
