How to decrease AAB size after update zoom sdk from 10.0.0 to 15.0.0 ?

[umeshcodealchemy]

I am using the react-native-zoom-us@15.0.0, which internally integrates the Zoom Meeting SDK Android 6.5.10 .

After upgrading from react-native-zoom-us@10.0.0 → 15.0.0, I am facing critical issues related to massive AAB size increase.

AAB size increased from 223MB → 353MB after upgrading Zoom SDK

Before upgrade:
App Bundle = 223MB

After upgrading to Zoom 6.5.10:
App Bundle = 353MB

Step to reproduce

Step 1 — Create a new RN project

npx @react-native-community/cli init projectname --version 0.77.3

Step 2 — Install latest react-native-zoom-us

yarn add react-native-zoom-us@15.0.0

Step 3 — Configure Android project

Step 4 — Build a release AAB

cd android
./gradlew bundleRelease

Actual Result:

AAB file size is massive increase, which is far above normal.

Problem Summary

Zoom SDK native binaries are extremely large, causing the final AAB to exceed Google Play’s size limit.
This makes it unable to publish any update.

[mieszko4]

Android ZoomSDK includes a few architectures and some of them might not be needed for you in Play Store.

It seems like the official way is to use abiFilters but that did not work for me (NOTE that their example of using abiFilters is wrong!)

After using abiFilters "arm64-v8a", in Analyze APK... I can see files from other build, especially armeabi-v7a which takes over 100mb.

What helped for me to reduce size was adding this:

packagingOptions {
        exclude 'lib/armeabi-v7a/**'
        exclude 'lib/x86/**'
        exclude 'lib/x86_64/**'
    }

But I did not test it on Play Store.

[theappdeveloper06]

armeabi-v7a can’t be excluded because many Samsung devices still support and require this architecture. Removing lib/armeabi-v7a/** causes the app to fail on those devices, so excluding it isn’t a safe option for production.

[mieszko4]

Yes, good point. Depending on your target users you might still need armeabi-v7a

[mieszko4]

Looks like the problem is on Zoom team and they do not have an easy solution for this :(

Unfortunately we are unable to change our SDK size and we do not have official guides or recommendations on how to resolve this issue.

https://devforum.zoom.us/t/android-meeting-sdk-6-5-1-31081-size-exceeds-google-play-store-upload-limit-unable-to-publish-app/137884/2

[mieszko4]

I've dug deeper into Play Store.

What I've concluded

• Play Store requires AAB file - this is a bundle file from which multiple APKs are generated based on automatic split (e.g. split by abi)
• Play Store file size limit of 200mb is meant for for already split file (base* apk file) - see https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9859372#size_limits
• Play Store uses bundle tool to extract APKs from AAB - see https://github.com/google/bundletool

What I've tried

• I took test app (uses react-native-zoom-us@16.1.0 with Android Zoom Meeting SDK@6.6.0)
• I cleaned the project and in Android Studio run Build->Generate App Bundles or APKs->Generate App Bundles
• Used bundle tool: java -jar bundletool.jar build-apks --bundle=app-debug.aab --output=app-debug.apks
• Renamed to zip: mv app-debug.apks app-debug.zip
• Extracted the zip
• Listed the content of app-debug/splits

It showed some base apks over 200MB, e.g. base-arm64_v8a.apk with 323MB

Solution

What helped me reduce the base files was using enabling in android/app/build.gradle the packaging:

android {
    ...
    packagingOptions {
        jniLibs {
            useLegacyPackaging true
        }
    }
}

The biggest base file was base-arm64_v8a.apk with 127MB.

This is mentioned in Size Reduction Tips [Android] and it is also used sample app from official Zoom Meeting SDK.

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@umeshcodealchemy Could you try using useLegacyPackaging true? If that does not work, could you run bundle tool to see file sizes of generated APKs?