Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> a few dozen kilobytes

A "hello world" Android starts at ~5MB.

It is possible to make it smaller if choosing some non-default different tools.




> non-default different tools

The “default” recommendation is clearly Android Studio plus Kotlin/Java.

Other tools are smaller.


Hello world Android app includes a lot of dependencies like compat libs, constraint layout, kotlin runtime. These are not essential and can be removed.


I am quite sure that isn't using the plain Android APIs, and has a bunch of needless libraries.

Use plain Java, regular Android views, handle yourself the ifdefs for Android versions, and the 5 MB won't be there.


Outch… and I though an ~8KB "Hello, World!" here on my rusty Mac is HUGE already.


Idk what to tell you but my "hello world" + a few dozen lines of functionality are 9.6KB. Haven't done anything special to shave things off




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: