ap3604

I did a regular google search and searched the forum but cant see that anyone has asked it yet:

Why do android applications double in size once you download them?

For example... in the Android market - Documents to Go says the application is only 3.59mb BUT once I download it and look under Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications to see what real size it is the application jumps to 8.05mb!!!

It seems like every single application is doing this. Why are these applications bigger than they actually are?

Thanks for your help on this guys

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CartOverlord

the same reason that it is on pc. you download the installer file then install it, the install expands the file and makes it executable for use. the only difference is, you cant delete teh installer like you can on pc.

make sense?

wmtoandroid

I believe it also has to do with the fact that apps collect a lot of data as well. For example, web browsers like to cache data and it could add a lot to the apps total size.

I was checking out some of the app sizes a moment ago and my 5MB TouchPal keyboard is a staggering 10MB! A keyboard!

ap3604

Thank you CartOverlord and wmtoandroid that makes total sense now

Glad you both are here on the forum. Thank you

Tangent

That's really a bad way to determine size then. Who cares what size the installer is when the limiting factor is storage space on the phone? Being able to move it to the relatively unlimited space of the sd card is new to froyo so they couldn't have been counting on that this whole time... Perhaps we should all suggest to the market that listed app sizes must be the actual installed size?

gruss

There would be no way for them to know what data you will have and how big their app would be on your phone, so they give .apk size as a standard.

willy9b

Hopefully this indicates a learning process in terms of predictive text - does it get better, the more you use it?

It must store the additional data it gathers, I guess.

wmtoandroid

I suppose the dictionary would take up space, but 5MB seems like a little much.

The predictive text is pretty good. It displays way more words than other keyboards, so you have more options when typing, rather than just one or two.

My only gripe is that it doesn't add a space when you select a predicted word and continue typing. Other than that, it's very slick.

Munnarg

Touchpal was the best keyboard on windows mobile in my opinion. It was super fast and the ability to swipe on each key for alternate functions was awesome. It sucks that this one feels gimped in comparison. I do miss being able to resize the keyboard as well.

wmtoandroid

Not to stray too far off topic from the OP, but the feature I miss most was the "quick text", where you can program various sentences and have them quickly pasted into your chat application or email app. I'm sure they will make it just like the WM version in the future.