In late September, Apple announced that app slicing, an App Thinning feature of iOS 9, was unavailable to developers because of an iCloud backup issue. Apple today updated developers on the status of app slicing, noting that it's once again available for use following the iOS 9.0.2 update and the recent Xcode 7.0.1 update.

appthinning

The issue affecting app slicing has been fixed, and device-specific versions of apps will be delivered when downloaded by users running iOS 9.0.2 or later.

App slicing is one facet of App Thinning, an iOS 9 feature designed to decrease the size of iOS apps to save valuable space on devices without a lot of storage space. With app slicing, users only download the app assets created for their particular device rather than a full set of assets for multiple devices. For example, on an iPhone 6s, a user will only need to download iPhone 6s specific files, ignoring both larger iPad artwork and lower quality resources for earlier iOS devices.

To take advantage of the space saving features in app slicing, all iOS 9 users should upgrade to iOS 9.0.2. App slicing is not available in earlier versions of iOS 9 or in iOS 8.

Tag: Apple Developer Program

Top Rated Comments

utwarreng Avatar
utwarreng
91 months ago
is there an easy way to update already downloaded apps? without deleting and reinstalling?
Developers have to add support for it to their apps, and their ability to add that support was just re-added. They'll support it in their upcoming updates. So deleting/re-installing the app today would simply overwrite today's app with another of the same. Once they release an update to support App Slicing, you'll be able to download it.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DaveMcM76 Avatar
DaveMcM76
91 months ago
I'm assuming that iTunes still downloads the full app bundle as it doesn't know which devices you may then sync it to, so does adding an app via an iTunes sync also filter out the bits you don't need or do you get the full App bundle and thus use up more space on the device than if you downloaded the app straight from the App Store on the device?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
l00pback Avatar
l00pback
91 months ago
is there an easy way to update already downloaded apps? without deleting and reinstalling?
In the App Store, there is a section called Updates. Apps that have available updates will show there.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Oblivious.Robot Avatar
Oblivious.Robot
91 months ago
My beloved 16Gb iPad Air 2 would be so glad to hear this news!!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
macs4nw Avatar
macs4nw
91 months ago
great, glad they ironed this one out. i think this will help a lot of 16gb users
It should. But personally, unless I got a new iPhone each and every year, even with App-thinning I wouldn't consider a 16GB iPhone a prudent choice. Perhaps not future-proofed enough.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Adithya007 Avatar
Adithya007
91 months ago
These days, 16 Gb iPads make a lot of sense too.

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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