Why are preinstalled apps so small?

Question

On Android 7 I have some apps preinstalled. I'm talking about fresh installed apps without user data:




  • AOSP Keyboard - 152 KB

  • Browser - 180 KB (org.lineageos.jelly)

  • E-Mail - 288 KB (com.android.email)

  • Calendar - 116 KB (com.android.calendar)



Why are these app so small compared to some small apps I have installed




  • Unit Converter Ultimate ~ 8MB


— user27596 | Sources

Answer

Because Android 7 only shows space occupied from /data.



This is my phone [OnePlus 5]. Using the same app AOSP Keyboard as example.



In settings it shows as 260KB, and



# du -sh /data/data/com.android.inputmethod.latin

24K
  com.android.inputmethod.latin

# du -sh /system/app/LatinIME

19M
  LatinIME


Personal guess: A normal user can't alter how much space an app takes in /system, so Android chooses to directly ignore it.


— iBug | Sources

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