redBus reduces app size with Android App Bundles

Learn how redBus streamlines releases and reduced app size by 30% with Android App Bundles.

Background

With more than half a million reported users, redBus is one of the most popular ticket booking apps in Southeast Asia and Latin America. It helps people book bus tickets in several different languages for over 70,000 routes from over 2,300 operators.

What they did

redBus operates in areas where bandwidth and phone memory are at a premium, so keeping their app size small is critical.

The redBus team decided to implement the Android App Bundle as a way of further reducing their app size. Building the bundle was “easy,” said Dinesh Shanmugam, Android Engineering Lead at redBus. Within hours, they were testing the bundle on their internal test track.

Results

redBus reported that adopting the app bundle format reduced their average APK size by 30% and significantly reduced the time needed to manage each release. “We were generating three APKs when we were using multi-APK,” said Shanmugam. “Now that’s been cut down to one.”

The Android App Bundle enables modularization and delivering features on demand. As a next step, the team is testing dynamic feature modules to support new business lines and experimental features, such as the ability to book an entire bus for events. The ability to deliver these experiences only to users who want them will allow redBus to keep their base app size small at the point of install and to provide a more customized experience for users who want additional functionality.

Get started

App and game developers can build Android App Bundles today. Get started!

Go to Play Console