Last Monday the launch of Apple talked about the new features in iOS 9 which is appreciated by the iPhone and iPad owners experiencing a shortage of free space on their devices. The meaning of a function called App Thinnig is that gadgets will load into memory only the necessary code so that games and apps will take up much less space.
Although Apple introduced the App Thinning as one function, it actually consists of three different mechanisms, each of which plays its role in reducing the size of applications. MacDigger have studied how these mechanisms work.
First – Slicing App – does most of the work. Because the applications are created under a large number of devices, from 3.5-inch iPhone 4 to 5.5-inch iPhone 6 (or, in the case of universal apps, 9.7-inch iPad), they contain all the data for each device – most of which your device is not needed.
For example, you have an iPhone 5c, which uses a 32-bit processor and graphics card that does not support Metal API. When you download the modern universal game, it contains 64-bit code, the data packages for the iPad and iPhone 6 Plus, as well as code Metal API and it is absolutely unnecessary data. For your smartphone install only 32-bit code, the data package for the iPhone and OpenGL graphics.
App Slices will allow developers to separate data packets, by types of devices, and when you will download the app from the App Store, your device will load only the data that he needs. Apple has made this process as simple as possible, so that most programs in the future will support this feature.
The second way to reduce the size of applications On-Demand Resources (ODR). Imagine a game with lots of levels – it’s enough to have only the current level and the next few. ODR allows you to download the game from the first few levels, while the rest will be uploaded as it passes (and completed levels will be automatically deleted).
Finally, Bitcode. Instead of downloading pre-compiled binaries, developers load what Apple calls the “intermediate version” of the app. Then, before you start downloading, the App Store automatically compiles the application. It allows to automatically enable Slicing App, even if the developers did not care about it – and the device will only use 32-bit or 64-bit code, depending on the processor type.
If Apple improves the compiler to improve code efficiency, these improvements will be automatically added to the app, when you start the download.
In all this, of course, there are nuances. For example, if you kill the time in flights for a multi-level toy, it would be a bummer if you downloaded the levels will end – it to spool new to touchdown you can’t. However, App Thinning will yield better results – especially for owners of devices with 16 GB of memory.
