Google Raising App Size: 4GB Replaces The Old 50MB Limit

While "the cloud" may be the hot new thing, local storage still has a major role in the consumption of media and portable gadgetry as a whole. Storing contacts or documents in a cloud isn't too far-fetched, but storing a 4GB app? Yeah, that could be a problem. To date, Android apps have have historically been limited to a maximum size of 50MB. In a lot of ways, it's for the best. It forces developers to think hard before wasting precious space, and also, older devices with limited storage were able to take advantage of more apps. But times are changing, and Google's deciding to get on with the program. The company has this week expanded 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, and the 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. According to Google: "

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 expansion files are downloaded. 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."

Now, get to work on those huge apps!