Android Market, now allowing apps of 4GB

[Bateluer]

http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2012/03/android-apps-break-50mb-barrier.html

So today, we’re expanding the Android app size limit to 4GB.

The size of your APK file will still be limited to 50MB to ensure secure on-device storage, but you can now attach expansion files to your APK.

-Each app can have two expansion files, each one up to 2GB, in whatever format you choose.

-Android Market will host the files to save you the hassle and cost of file serving.
-Users will see the total size of your app and all of the downloads before they install/purchase.

-On most newer devices, when users download your app from Android Market, the expansion files will be downloaded automatically, and the refund period won’t start until the entire download completes. On older devices, your app will download the expansion files the first time it runs, via a downloader library which we’ve provided below.

While you can use the two expansion files any way you wish, we recommend that one serve as the initial download and be rarely if ever updated; the second can be smaller and serve as a “patch carrier,” getting versioned with each major release.

Keep in mind, the 'standard' data plan these days is only 2GB . . .mind your wifi.

 

[Rifter]

hasnt it been like this for a while? i remember downloading a game a few months ago when i got my phone that required a 1GB+ of data to be downloaded after purchasing the game from the market. I believe it was called spectral souls. Or was the old file size limit over 1GB anyways?

 

[vshah]

hasnt it been like this for a while? i remember downloading a game a few months ago when i got my phone that required a 1GB+ of data to be downloaded after purchasing the game from the market. I believe it was called spectral souls. Or was the old file size limit over 1GB anyways?

before the app dev had to host/manage the downloading of those files themselves. now they are a part of the app market submission, and are hosted by google. There's also a standard way to download them on first run of the app.

 

[Deeko]

That's a big app.

 

[lothar]

That's a big app.

That's what she said.

You knew that was coming, didn't ya

 

[_Aurel_]

This is very good news. It's good for the developers, good for the buyers and ultimately good for Google. This will hopefully entice developers to make bigger, higher quality games on Android now that they don't have to cover the cost of hosting them, and since the 15 min refund window begins after the download finishes it will hopefully encourage more people to 'try out' games... at least to see if it is working .

 

[Monster_Munch]

before the app dev had to host/manage the downloading of those files themselves. now they are a part of the app market submission, and are hosted by google. There's also a standard way to download them on first run of the app.

Yeah it's going to be good for the smaller devs who perhaps can't afford to host their own files. Considering a lot of apps are freeware or ad supported it's not like everyone is rolling in cash.

 

[soccerballtux]

about time.
Fed up with EA games you can't play without the 50MB download which they throttle to push you past the 15 minute return period.

 

[dj2004]

Maybe now the dev for Battleheart will finally give us the update for the game. However, it sounds like he does not care for Android users so I guess I shouldn't expect it.