Google Play store now shows delta update size rather than full app size Edited by Pulak at 2016-05-03 12:12
A delta update is an update that only requires the user to download the code that has changed, not the whole program. It can significantly save time and bandwidth.The name is drawn from the fact that the Greek letter delta, Δ or δ, is used to denote change in mathematical sciences. Wikipedia Google announced delta update support for Play Store applications way back in GoogleI/O 2012. The main aim was to save you from re-downloading an entire app every time there's an update. But this hasn’t seemed to be implemented in a transparent way until last few days. Now, it looks like whenever there is an update, the Play Store has started showing the size of the update rather than the full app size. If you check an app descr iption in the Play Store prior to downloading an app, it shows the update size only. This gives you an idea how much data you actually need to download the update of the app. The progress bar now matches the displayed update size,which makes it less confusing. 
To try and keep things simple as possible, let's use Gmail to explain. If you already have Gmail installed on your phone or tablet, and the developer makes a change that enhances for example, the search algorithm only, you won't have to download the whole Gmail app to update. Google will do a version check, then send out a patch that merges the changes that developer made with the files you already have. There may be changes to some of the other codes, or in the manifest file, so you'll get a delta update that copies the new codes to the apk file, erases the old, and merges the changed codes. Now you must be thinking why I am making noise on such a small change? Well let me explain. Although it is a small change, but gives us comfort because now we actually know the update size that is going to be download. Previously, it displayed the full app size and would just stop after the patch was downloaded. Actual sizes of the apps are quite big and, as we didn’t know the patch size,sometimes although important, we had to skip the update due to lack of data. | |
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Now this is a good move!
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Yeah noticed that from few months ago. Nice move...mobile data users will love it.
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Great.. Needed this badly
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Yeah I actually skipped some updates when I had less data remaining in my internet packs... Something like this was very much needed as now we would know exactly how much data we would have to spend and download accordingly... That was a good share bro... {:10_343:}
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