Space Saving iOS 9 ‘App Slicing’ Given Green Light By Apple Following iCloud Bugginess
Apple on Monday announced that it fixed an issue with its app slicing feature in iOS 9, and in doing so, developer's now have permission to begin using it. This is good news for Apple device owners rocking only 16GB or even just 8GB of internal storage, provided they've updated to iOS 9.0.2 (app slicing doesn't work on previous iOS builds).
App slicing is part of Apple's nifty app thinning feature designed to optimize the installation of iOS and watchOS apps on specific devices. Using app slicing, developers can build apps that install only the parts needed for a particular device while ignoring space hogging resources for other devices.
For example, an iPhone user installing an app built with app slicing would only download the assets needed for their handset rather than the whole package, which could otherwise include artwork and other resources for a range of devices, like the iPad and lower quality assets for earlier iOS gadgets.
"The App Store will create and deliver different variants based on the devices your app supports. Image resources are sliced according to their resolution and device family. GPU resources are sliced according to device capabilities. When the user installs an app, a variant for the user’s device is downloaded and installed," Apple explains.
App slicing should help ease the sting of having low storage, especially since Apple doesn't include microSD card slots on its iPhone and iPad devices. Even with the release of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Apple is still pushing a measly 16GB on on the low end.
App slicing is part of Apple's nifty app thinning feature designed to optimize the installation of iOS and watchOS apps on specific devices. Using app slicing, developers can build apps that install only the parts needed for a particular device while ignoring space hogging resources for other devices.
For example, an iPhone user installing an app built with app slicing would only download the assets needed for their handset rather than the whole package, which could otherwise include artwork and other resources for a range of devices, like the iPad and lower quality assets for earlier iOS gadgets.
"The App Store will create and deliver different variants based on the devices your app supports. Image resources are sliced according to their resolution and device family. GPU resources are sliced according to device capabilities. When the user installs an app, a variant for the user’s device is downloaded and installed," Apple explains.
App slicing should help ease the sting of having low storage, especially since Apple doesn't include microSD card slots on its iPhone and iPad devices. Even with the release of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Apple is still pushing a measly 16GB on on the low end.
