Fresco’s large size may seem intimidating, but it need not leave you with a large app. We strongly recommend use of the ProGuard tool as well as building split APKs to keep your app small.

ProGuard

Since Fresco 1.9.0 a ProGuard configuration file is included in Fresco itself which is automatically applied if you enable ProGuard for your app. To enable ProGuard, modify your build.gradle file to include the lines contained in the release section below.

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android {
  buildTypes {
    release {
      minifyEnabled true
      proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt')
    }
  }
}

Build Multiple APKs

Fresco is written mostly in Java, but there is some C++ as well. C++ code has to be compiled for each of the CPU types (called “ABIs”) Android can run on. Currently, Fresco supports five ABIs.

  1. armeabiv-v7a: Version 7 or higher of the ARM processor. Most Android phones released from 2011-15 are using this.
  2. arm64-v8a: 64-bit ARM processors. Found on new devices, like the Samsung Galaxy S6.
  3. x86: Mostly used by tablets, and by emulators.
  4. x86_64: Used by 64-bit tablets.

Fresco’s binary download has copies of native .so files for all five platforms. You can reduce the size of your app considerably by creating separate APKs for each processor type.

If your app does not support Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) you will not need the armeabi flavor.

To enable multiple APKs, add the splits section below to the android section of your build.gradle file.

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android {
  // rest of your app's logic
  splits {
    abi {
        enable true
        reset()
        include 'x86', 'x86_64', 'arm64-v8a', 'armeabi-v7a'
        universalApk false
    }
  }
}

See the Android publishing documentation for more details on how splits work.