Play Store Now Shows App Sizes At Least For Indian Users

Here in India, we are very cautious about our data consumption. This is largely because of Fair Usage Policy (FuP) exercised by network providers (both wired and wireless) to cap bandwidth. Post consumption of the data in FuP limit, the browsing speed is lowered. For example in case of Reliance Jio, the daily FuP limit is 1GB. A Jio user gets high 4G speeds until 1GB and after that the internet speed is limited to 128kbps. Being a Jio user myself, I can tell you that browsing at 128kbps feels terrible. Once one gets used to web pages loading blazing fast (high 4G speeds when within the data cap), it is hard to take in when they seem to take ages to load up. Other carriers in India have similar data caps.

Keeping the data cautious Indian user in mind, Google has now started showing app sizes in the Play Store. This update to the Play Store seems to be applicable only to Indian residents. We cross checked within our team and found that this update is indeed only live for Indian users. If you have received this update in some other country, do let us know in the comments section below.

Approximate app sizes are now shown almost everywhere in the Play Store. They are there in search results, app suggestions (and also advertisements) and the update section.

New UI

Above: Previous Test UI,
Below: New UI

We have previously seen Google show app sizes in the three dotted menu but now the app sizes are shown directly in the application info along with the name of the app developer, the app price and it's rating.

Left: Previous Test UI,
Right: New

This is a server side update, so if you reside in India and haven't received the update yet, you will have to wait it for the update to reach you. Manually upgrading the Play Store with its APK file won't help here.

Google recommends Android developers to reduce their app size so that they can reach more users in emerging markets. An app that weighs less gets downloaded quickly and also uses lesser system resources. 

[Featured image sourced from Play Store]

Krittin Kalra

Krittin Kalra is a 20 year old Android freak. Striving for passions, chasing down his dreams and living a life without regrets is his sole mantra. A bit moody, he also does custom ROM reviews for AndroGuider. Currently pursuing his B.Tech, he aspires to follow his heart.