How to reduce size of ios APP in xcode 7.1

Question

I've made a simple iPad app with 30 lines of code. No image is present and its icon size is also low, but the app size is 45 MB. I have seen an app which was released in November 2015, but its size is 13 MB. My app is just a clone of that app. Why is my app size bigger, is it because of xcode 7.1?. Should I use an older version? Is there any Xcode trick so that I can reduce size, or any third party tool to reduce app size?

Answer 1

You need not to worry about size of app. Basically Xcode creates a generic binary and once it's uploaded to app store, only related files (images@2x, @3x etc) will be downloaded depending on device. This is called app thinning.

The store and operating system optimise the installation of iOS, tvOS, and watchOS apps by tailoring app delivery to the capabilities of the user’s particular device, with minimal footprint. This optimisation, called app thinning, lets you create apps that use the most device features, occupy minimum disk space, and accommodate future updates that can be applied by Apple. Faster downloads and more space for other apps and content provides a better user experience. You can read more here.

Also check if you have not added using Header Search Path/ Some framework.

Answer 2

I think you should probably check once again wheather you are using images in .png format or not?

If you are right then don't worry, In Xcode 7 and later if it is showing 45 MB, then after upload on iTunes its size will be automatically reduced because builds from Xcode 7 and later automatically takes only used resources from the project. This is the new feature that apple has provided in iOS 9 and later.

Answer 3

In Xcode, go through "Build phases" and see what all is actually part of your application. It happens that people accidentally include things into the app that have no business being there.

You said you have icons but they are not big - have you actually checked their size in kilobytes (not in pixels)? I have had a case where designers gave me 200 tiny icons, each 100 KB in size because the whole history how they were created in Photoshop was part of the icon. And a cheap tool reduced them to less than 1KB on average.