On 22 July, Google announced Google Play store improvements focused on the size of updates. A new delta algorithm, bsdiff, has been rolled out to further reduce patches for apps and games.
Mobile users are sensitive to the amount of data they use, especially when Wi-Fi is not available. Google is thus trying to reduce the data required for Google Play app installs and updates, as well as make data cost clearer to users.
Google says that for approximately 98 percent of app updates from the Play Store, only deltas to APK files (the changes between the current version and the new versions) are downloaded and merged with the existing files, reducing the size of updates and thus how much data is downloaded. The new algorithm produces more efficient deltas of native libraries by taking advantage of the specific ways in which compiled native code changes between versions.
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