Downloadable application extensions

What is the benefit? Why is this valuable?

• Qt, as a cross-platform framework, would provide a solution for downloading additional functionality of an app.
• Support app on hosting platforms that have set limits on app sizes, e.g. Google Play

What are common use cases?

In some cases, Qt users might want to publish an app with a small initial package and then be able to download additional functionality via other packages. Basically, having an app that is split into downloadable modules. An app would use API where it can query if certain features are available and, if not, download them on-demand. This is needed not only for visual assets or some data but, in the first row, for application code, when the app has high complexity and rich functionality.

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Technical information

• Google Play Store has limits of max 150MB for apps and provides a dedicated framework for handling of additional modules - "Feature Delivery" https://developer.android.com/guide/playcore/feature-delivery
• This feature would be limited on iOS to graphical resources only, since Apple Store rules do not allow (as of Aug 2023) modifications of installed application bundles

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