Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is seeking to optimize Android performance on its social networks. The company is restructuring its Java bytecode through its Redex project with the main focus on Android DEX files.
According to Facebook engineers Shane Ney, Bert Maher and Marty Greenia, it is important that the company maintain its pace of the forward momentum. They claim that a lot of attention is needed especially in developing areas that allow devices to last longer in the market. Android is the biggest platform for Facebook and its social networks. Android is also characterized by a variety of different devices.
The company claims that a single improvement could significantly improve the performance and thus boost the overall experience for millions of users.
Redex is currently confined to Facebook’s social platform. Even though the company has been actively dishing out software recently, there is not much else to do with Redex. The engineers claim that Redex infuses a series of custom modifications so that DEX files can be optimized before they are included in an Android application. They also noted that optimizing the files at the bytecode level maximizes their ability to carry out interclass-optimizations on a global scale throughout the whole binary.
This approach is better than optimizing directly on the source code. The initial DEX file goes through numerous stages in the optimization process. Each stage is like a single independent optimization plugin that lines up with the process from the previous stage.
The Redex optimization process is designed to allow any form of DEX transformation. However, the main focus of the engineers is to minimize the number of bytecode ships in an APK through Redex. There is also a need to reduce the bytecode because the lesser the bytes, the faster the download and install speeds. A reduced number of bytecodes also means the performance will be enhanced. If such changes are implemented, they translate to an overall optimization of an application, meaning apps will be more efficient, refined and faster.
Sources: infoworld
