'App Slicing' To Address iPhone Space Issues

What Apple promised, they have now delivered as the tech company finally included the the feature "App Slicing" (also known as "App Thinning") in the updated iOS 9, but the operating system must be iOS 9.0.2 or higher.

The feature, which is meant to reduce the amount of storage space apps take by delivering optimized packages for specific devices, was put on hold so Apple could fix a bug relating to iCloud backup.

The way it works is as simple as it is clever. As it stands today, when developers release an app onto the App Store, the binary includes a whole lot of superfluous code to accommodate a wide range of devices, from new iPhone 6s models to 32-bit iPhone 5 devices and more. That being the case, if the user happens to have an older device that can’t take advantage of more recent technologies, they are needlessly downloading a whole lot of extra code.

With App Thinning, developers will finally be able to split up their apps so that users only spend valuable storage space on the code they actually need. Even better, developers can still just submit one app to the App Store whereupon Apple will take care of the rest.

As an illustrative example, MacRumors notes that a new iPhone 6s user “will only need to download iPhone 6s specific files, ignoring both larger iPad artwork and lower quality resources for earlier iOS devices.”

Here's how Apple describes "App Slicing":

"Slicing is the process of creating and delivering variants of the app bundle for different target devices. A variant contains only the executable architecture and resources that are needed for the target device. You continue to develop and upload full versions of your app to iTunes Connect. 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. For tvOS apps, assets in catalogs shared between iOS and tvOS targets are sliced and large app icons are removed. When the user installs an app, a variant for the user's device is downloaded and installed."

Now that bug has been fixed users of iOS 9.0.2 and higher will receive device-specific versions of apps, saving both bandwidth and storage space. Those using earlier version of iOS will continue to receive what Apple calls "universal apps."

When pressed by Daring Fireball's John Gruber on the subject earlier this year, Apple SVP Phil Schiller tried to argue that cloud services have lessened the need for copious amounts of built-in flash storage. "The belief is more and more as we use iCloud services for documents and our photos and videos and music, that perhaps the most price-conscious customers are able to live in an environment where they don't need gobs of local storage because these services are lightening the load." Some (but not all) leading Android manufacturers have established 32GB as their baseline for storage.

If you're running a 16GB iPhone or iPad then this should help buy you more time by freeing up some much-needed storage space.