Whenever there is an update for an app (Android in particular) is it better to just accept the however many updates there has been issued since you originally installed it, or is it better to uninstall and then re-install the latest version with the update already incorporated into it? Or is there no real difference either way? 

 

Just thinking if the app would run more efficiently, and take up less space if the latter option was chosen.

 

Many thanks.

Can't imagine there'd be much of a difference, generally. It shouldn't matter if there have been five or fifty updates since you last synced up - The latest version should just replace everything.

Beyond that, it depends whether the individual app removes any files that are no longer needed, and whether your phone removes everything on uninstall. Sometimes these things retain settings files, just in case you one day reinstall the app.

 

The update will replace the original APK file and delete the original original. 

Many thanks for the responses.

 

I downloaded the latest Android software last week (Oreo) and subsequently had loads of app updates to contend with over the next few days, so it just got me wondering. 

Unless you've got a billion apps installed, or your home internet is even slower than mine (0.7Mbps, so not likely), you should be able to install all updates within one episode of University Challenge...

I'm on 3 AYCE data (anywhere between 30-50Gb pm) , so download speed and useage is not an issue. I just found it surprising how much storage space some apps took up on my phone. 

 

For instance my 3, British Gas & Costa app all contain info about me and take up 20 - 25mb, yet Chrome and Google app are 300 - 450mb.  As you can no doubt gather, I'm not that up on the running of these things, but to me Chrome is just a browser, so shouldn't use up that much storage space. 

 

 

And yes, I can feel a facepalm reaction coming up!