iOS apps are about to get a lot bigger.
Apple doubled the size limit of iOS apps from 2GB to 4GB, the company told developers Thursday.
The increase is so app makers "can include more media in your submission and provide a more complete, rich user experience upon installation," Apple said in its message to developers about the change.
The 2GB limit had been in place since the launch of the App Store in 2008 — and for game developers, upping that limit is a huge deal. As more and more studios port console and PC games to mobile devices, they've increasingly bumped into size constraints.
The developers of the Final Fantasy series, for example, have said an iOS game was delayed "years" due to Apple's limitations on app size, while other developers have figured out workarounds. The latest Skylanders game, Skylanders: Trap Team skirted the issue by downloading new levels in the background as users play.
Of course, the change in app size has negative implications for iOS users with lower capacity devices. As display quality continues to improve and developers make bigger apps, 8GB and 16GB iPhones and iPads will feel more and more restrictive.
Android developers, on the other hand, have been able to work with larger apps for some time. Google raised its size limit on Android apps from 50MB to 4GB back in 2012.
