Why is Google app so large?

Google App does more than just searching the web, it customizes your feed, updates you about stories, weather, etc., offers Google Assistant, Learns about how you use it and much more.

This results into an App size of about 120MB(apk size varies according to specific screen densities or Application Binary Interfaces) after installation without app data.


Analysing APK Structure of Google App 7.20.16.21.arm, I got following details which takes about 115MB of storage and further 90MB of data is stored on phone, making the total app size of 205MB.

The app size of approximately 115MB is categorized as:


classes.dex ~ 42MB(39%):

Contains the classes compiled in the DEX file format understood by the Dalvik/ART virtual machine.

resources.arsc ~ 30MB(27%):

Contains compiled resources. This file contains the XML content from all configurations of the res/values/ folder. The packaging tool extracts this XML content, compiles it to binary form, and archives the content. This content includes language strings and styles, as well as paths to content that is not included directly in the resources.arsc file, such as layout files and images.

lib/ ~ 23MB(20%):

Contains the compiled code that is specific to the software layer of a processor. This directory contains a subdirectory for each platform type, like armeabi, armeabi-v7a, arm64-v8a, x86, x86_64, and mips.

res/ ~ 10MB(8%):

Contains resources that aren't compiled into resources.arsc.

assets/ ~ 5MB(4%):

Contains the app's assets, which the app can retrieve using an AssetManager object.

META-INF/ ~ 2MB(1%):

Contains the CERT.SF and CERT.RSA signature files, as well as the MANIFEST.MF manifest file.

Rest ~ 1MB(1%):

org/, AndroidManifest.xml, build-data.properties, etc.

Further 90MB of data stored on disk consists of search history, feed data which grows with the app usage.