How the updates of some apps in the Play Store start from ~50%?

Question

For example, when I updated Whatsapp today, the download started from 13.1MB and the app size was 23.4MB. I had disabled all auto updates. I have also noticed this in some other app updates.


— WeirdElfB0y | Sources

Answer

Google Play provides delta updates, which allow you to only download the data needed to patch your existing files to the latest version. This is done at a binary level, so you will typically need to download more data than has changed, but still less than the entire app.


— Matthew Read | Sources

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