WeChat Installation Package Expands 575 Times in 11 Years

“Technology Boy”, an uploader of Bilibili, released a video on July 25, showing the process that he decrypted the installation package of WeChat Android version 8.0.24 through software reverse engineering, exploring what WeChat had experienced from “light and easy to use” to “thick” now. After decompression, it was found that WeChat version 8.0.24 was 617MB in size occupying the space of 634MB, containing 12,639 files, while WeChat version 1.0 was 737KB in size occupying 1.03 MB in space, with only 199 files.

The uploader said that the code actually used to make the popular APP’s chat function work might account for only 0.1%, and most of the code was used to run mini programs in addition to WeChat Video Channels and other functions. “99.9% of the space occupied by WeChat is storing garbage functions and resources,” he said.

The size of its Android version 1.0 released in January 2011 was only 457KB, but 11 years later, the size of its version 8.0.24 has reached 257MB, an expansion of 575 times. In addition, the recently updated version 8.0.25 has reached 263MB, which is larger than many PC softwares.

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Most netizens also said that the space occupied by smartphone applications was getting bigger and bigger, taking up as much as 300 to 400 MB of storage space. As a result, many are finding their smartphone memory quickly running out users who have insufficient internal storage space can only clean the cache every day. Some netizens also said that the total space occupying by QQ and WeChat had exceeded 70 GB.

Some programmers said that the reason is that the current apps are enriching their functions, such as WeChat with various functions like mini programs, games, video channel, shopping, live-streaming. Other apps are the same as Wechat.