Grab shrank its superapp by a quarter in order to survive

In 2019, Southeast Asian superapp developer Grab spotted a problem: its app was growing in size by one percent per month, making it less suited to the modest smartphones found across the region in which it operates, degrading user experience and ultimately threatening its prospects for attracting more users. "As the app …

[Sora2566]

Kudos on Grab for their hard work.

[Badgerfruit]

Indeed. Now do Windows

[ldo]

Re: Now do Windows

Unfortunately, Windows was never designed to fit on a modest-priced phone ...

[cookieMonster]

Re: Now do Windows

Or PC

[ldo]

R Classes Contain Resource IDs

I thought that integer constants would have their values directly substituted into the code where they are referenced. Given that R.java files contain nothing but integer constant definitions, why should the presence of unneeded (and therefore unreferenced) definitions contribute anything to compiled code size at all?

[DS999]

If it is really a "superapp"

Shouldn't it be the only app on your phone?

[MiguelC]

Re: If it is really a "superapp"

No need for the Troll icon, that is their ultimate goal.

But even then it might use too much storage on those entry level phones to allow it to perform at a reasonable level.

[Pascal Monett]

"Grab is now working to adopt a single font"

Kudos to Grab for a momentous job, and special points if they do open-source their app sizer. I'm sure many other developers will find that extremely useful.

But there is one thing I don't understand : the multiple font issue. Why does it even exist ? Why didn't Grab specify the working font at the beginning of its project, and stick to it ?

I would have thought brand identity would be a consideration, but apparently Grab has multiple teams and each team made its own UI decisions.

That doesn't strike me as a good idea.

[ldo]

Re: "Grab is now working to adopt a single font"

Conway’s Law applies: any piece of software reflects the organizational structure that produced it.

[ChoHag]

> It started by building a custom tool to analyze binaries from bundle files. It named the tool App Sizer and integrated with its workflow.

Typical developer response. Problem: We have too much code. Solution? Write more code.

Put. The. Editor. Down.

[ldo]

Solution? Write more code.

Having trouble understanding the difference between the size of the deliverable, and the tools being used to manage the size of that deliverable?

[jezza99]

Save disk space?

Good on Grab for making their app more efficient.

But I have yet to find a mobile phone, in Asia or anywhere else, which has a disk drive!