as far as I understand, when a user downloads an apk in the Playstore, the whole apk including all image resolutions is downloaded. The same goes for the installation: all configurations for the different sizes / densities are kept and are basically wasting memory. Especially on older devices with tiny memory storage it is annoying that they have to waste memory on xxxhdpi images.
Wouldn't it make sense for the Playstore / the Android OS to optimize that process in a way that a customized apk is downloaded and installed depending on the screen resolution? Is there anything obvious that I am missing that keeps them from doing that?
I'm happy to hear about thoughts, ideas, maybe even official statements if there are any.
Note: I know that one can upload different apks for different configurations to the store, and that there are many ways to reduce image and apk sizes. What I am asking is why there is no standard procedure to remove these redundant data automatically for all apps
Is there anything obvious that I am missing that keeps them from doing that?
The APK is digitally signed by the developer and therefore cannot be modified in this fashion without invalidating the signature.
This is why you have the option of using splits or other techniques for creating APKs targeted at specific segments, so that those can be individually signed and those signatures can remain intact.