How do I decrease the size of the Ionic Android APK file?

Issue

I created the app using Ionic and the Android APK file size is too big.

Before the API integration The File Size was 4.8MB. When I integrated the API I modified just 10 Pages now the APK file size is 71 MB.

Here are the Cordova Plugins I have used:

• cordova-plugin-console
• cordova-plugin-datepicker
• cordova-plugin-device
• cordova-plugin-network-information
• cordova-plugin-splashscreen
• cordova-plugin-statusbar
• cordova-plugin-whitelist
• cordova-plugin-x-socialsharing
• cordova-sqlite-storage
• es6-promise-plugin
• ionic-plugin-keyboard

I unzipped the APK file to find out what going on. I looked at the build Folder in assets/www/ folder which alone was 357MB and it contains JavaScript and MAP files and a 4.5MB CSS file.

How do I decrease the size of the Ionic Android APK file?

Solution

You should use the --prod and --release flags when building the APK file for production. It reduces the size by compressing the files.

ionic build android --prod --release

Answered By - suzan