[MildlySerious]

What are these apps that have 50+ MB in code built with? Or what counts as code in that regard?

Snapchat for example is 95MB, 77MB code, and on my phone (Android, so not directly linked, but probably similar) the most unresponsive, crashy and painful-to-use app right along with Skype.

[cantrevealname]

I was amazed to find a C++ "Hello, World" program was several megabytes. It turned out that it was due to statically linking in all of Unicode support. In the particular build environment it was invisible to the programmer; i.e., you wouldn't even realize it unless you went looking for it.

I'm wondering if the same kinds of things happen with Facebook, Skype, etc. It's not the actual Facebook or Skype code that's so huge, but that they've been around for so long and so many people worked on them that they have a very complex build procedure and they're linking in all kinds of unnecessary junk, but no one has the responsibility or desire to go prune it.

[MildlySerious]

Thank you, that's a good point, actually. Keeping things lean can be quite tedious and tricky in some cases.

The first thing I had in mind was frameworks like PhoneGap, Exponent and the likes. I wonder if these have a big impact on app size.

But it's certainly true that it's not always extra stuff to slap on that makes things bloated. Could just as well be the stuff you don't go out of your way to keep out.