Apple boosts tvOS app size limit to 4GB

Apple on Thursday announced a change in App Store policy which increases the size limit of tvOS app bundles from 200 megabytes to 4 gigabytes, a boost that should provide a better end user experience upon initial installation.

With the increased data allowance, developers can include additional media in App Store submissions to offer users a more complete and rich experience out of the box, Apple says in a post to its developer webpage.

In addition to larger main bundle sizes, Apple notes tvOS apps are still able to use on-demand resources to host up to 20GB of additional content to the App Store. These on-demand assets are dynamically downloaded to a user's Apple TV in the background and subsequently erased when not needed.

The on-demand feature also lets developers remotely store rarely used resources like app tutorials, as well as content related to in-app purchases. Game levels, for example, would likely be hosted on demand from App Store servers.

Apple previously restricted tvOS app bundles to 200MB, with remaining assets supplied via on-demand resources, in an attempt to streamline downloads and save space on storage-constrained Apple TV set-top boxes. Fourth-generation Apple TV units currently max out at 64GB of onboard storage.

49 Comments

zroger73 787 comments · 13 Years

About 7 years ago

This change doesn't come without a cost. In addition to a "more complete and rich experience", it also encourages code bloat and reduces the number of installable applications.

anantksundaram 20390 comments · 18 Years

A 20x increase in size limit?

That's weird. And non-trivial. How often do you see something like that?

blastdoor 3564 comments · 15 Years

zroger73 said:

This change doesn't come without a cost. In addition to a "more complete and rich experience", it also encourages code bloat and reduces the number of installable applications.

Dude. That would have to be some pretty bloaty code to take up 4GB.

This is about assets, not code.

The 200MB limit was stupid. This is long overdue.

Apple could make the AppleTV a decent gaming console if they lifted half a finger. This change is lifting maybe 1/10th of a finger.

Soli 9981 comments · 9 Years

anantksundaram said:

A 20x increase in size limit?

That's weird. And non-trivial. How often do you see something like that?

1) That's very atypical so I wonder if something else is up that we might be able to predict—perhaps with an upcoming Spring event.

2) Too bad we can't get a 20x increase in iCloud storage. Hell, I'd even settle for a 2x increase.

EsquireCats 1268 comments · 8 Years

Apple aren't new to introducing strict limits at launch that they loosen later. It teaches developers to the ideal size and level of optimisation expected of their apps and thus provides a great experience for new users at launch time. Now that the store is stable apple can carefully review these larger apps, and welcome the relatively few massive apps which require significantly more space to operate.