The case for launch xibs

They’re smaller than storyboards

I’m obsessed with keeping apps small, and I recently found an unlikely place to save a couple KB: launch screens. The default on iOS for a while has been to create a launch storyboard for your app, but launch storyboards are bundles that wrap a few files.

The innards of a compiled storyboard

Many launch storyboards don’t use any functionality that isn’t also available in the simpler, older xib format. I copied and pasted the launch screens from within the .storyboard into a freshly made .xib and the results saved 1.2 KB.

Make a new empty xib file with the same filename as your storyboard

Copypasta

Remove the launch screen file extension from your info.plist if there is one

Resulting file size savings

It’s just a couple KB, but in apps that are <2 MB like Opener every KB counts!

You could save even more space by using the relatively new UILaunchScreen info.plist key, but that lacks some of the customizability of launch storyboards/xibs.

Side note: Opener has two launch screens, one for iPhone and one for iPad, so this savings is doubled