- Android 16 now supports cloud compilation, a new feature that could speed up new app installs.
- The goal of cloud compilation is to avoid running the dex2oat tool during app installations by offloading compilation to the cloud.
- Dex2oat takes an APK file and generates app artifact files that the Android Runtime loads. Depending on the device and the amount of code to compile, this could take some time.
It looks like the ART (Android Runtime) JIT is playing an increasingly less important role with time.
Friendly reminder that the cloud is just someone else’s computer.
I can’t believe it took them this long lol. There’s like millions of whatever latest Samsung Galaxy phone, running that compilation locally millions of times is just a waste of global compute power and everyone’s time, run it once in the cloud and cache it.
There are CPU and Android version differences, but it’s not that hard a problem to solve. On-device bytecode->native compilation long struck me as a bit of a silly hack. Surely Google can cache build products.