About Android Developer Program Policies, Could I download a dex file from another website and load it?

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I want to reduce my android apk file size, so I split some function source code and compile those code to a Jar file, it contain a dex file in the jar file. When android app need use those functions, the app download the jar file and load dex file from it.

But I found the Android Developer Program Policies said:

An app downloaded from Google Play may not modify, replace or update its own APK binary code using any method other than Google Play's update mechanism

My question is do I do this a violation?

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kevto On BEST ANSWER

Yes because you're basically updating your APK without the Google Play's update mechanism. If you truly wish to minimize the .apk file size, you can put your resources online and request them through a custom api.

For example: I developed an app which uses Google Earth marker and polygon coordinates, descriptions and other useful information that are stored on my webserver, online in a .kml file. Because I'm constantly updating the file with new markers and polygons, I don't want the user to download the .apk file with a huge filesize each time I update my resources. So that's why I stored my resources online which the user downloads while using my app and that keeps the .apk filesize to less than 3MB which is great for the people who download the app through the play store. Otherwise the filesize would have been 15MB+ with all the images and other resources with that keeps on growing by each minute.

Nonetheless, the user would have to download the resources one way or another but I do like your way of thinking though to keep the size of the .apk file low as possible.