Help When I update apps, do they take more space?

[frusciante54]

So let's give an example. There's an app that takes 25 mbs of storage (not including data, cache or whatever) and you go to Play Store and update. Update package is 15 mbs.
When you update, does it take an extra 15 mbs of storage? Or does it delete that old 25 mb app and replace it with a new one?
The reason why I'm asking this is because sometimes I see that apps taking up even less space when I update.

 

[kate]

It doesn't add an additional 15MB to the 25MB. So they can take up more or less space depending on the update.

 

[Hadron]

The only case where it will definitely take up more space is when it's the first update to a system app. Since system apps live in the /system partition (i.e. the ROM), but updates are stored in the /data partition like other apps, the first update is an addition. Subsequent updates should however replace the previous one, as with user-installed apps.

To make it more complicated, the size of the download from the Play Store is not the size of the installed app, it's just the size of the app installer package.

But the main thing is that, as Kate says, updates replace the previous app rather than adding to it.

 

[steiny180]

The uninstall update option for the app requires the original APK to reside on the phone.

Therefore, when you update, you'll have two APK files for the app residing on your phone.

 

[Hadron]

But one of those will be in the system partition.