Tinker's self-introduction

What is Tinker

Tinker is WeChat's official Android hot patch solution. It supports dynamic distribution of code, So libraries and resources, allowing applications to be updated without reinstallation.Of course, you can also use Tinker to update your plugins.

It mainly includes the following parts:

1. Gradle compilation plugin: tinker-patch-gradle-plugin
2. Core sdk library: tinker-android-lib
3. Command line version for non-gradle compilation users: tinker-patch-cli.jar

Why Tinker

There are many hot patch solutions currently on the market, among which the more famous ones are Ali's AndFix, Meituan's Robust and QZone's super patch solutions, here is an official comparison table:

Overall:

1. As a native solution, AndFix firstly faces stability and compatibility issues, and more importantly, it cannot achieve class replacement, which requires a lot of additional development costs;
2. Robust compatibilityIt has a high success rate, but like AndFix, it cannot add variables and classes and can only be used as a bugFix solution;
3. The Qzone solution can release product functions, but its main problem is that instrumentation brings Dalvikperformance problems, and the rapid increase in the patch package to solve the memory address problem under Art.

Especially after Android N, due to the modification of the inline strategy of mixed compilation, it is not easy to solve various solutions on the market.The Tinker hot patch solution not only supports the replacement of classes, Sos and resources, but also supports the whole platform of 2.X-8.X (1.9.0 and above support 8.X).Using Tinker we can not only use it as a bugfix, but also as a replacement for feature releases.Tinker is already running on hundreds of millions of Android devices on WeChat, so why don't you use Tinker?

Known issues with Tinker

Due to principle and system limitations, Tinker has the following known issues:

1. Tinker does not support modifying AndroidManifest.xml, and Tinker does not support adding four major components (1.9.0 supports adding non-export activities);
2. Due to the limitations of Google Play's developer terms, it is not recommendedUpdate the code dynamically in the GP channel;
3. On Android N, the patch has a slight impact on the application startup time;
4. Some Samsung android-21 models are not supported, and it will actively throw" when the patch is loaded.TinkerRuntimeException:checkDexInstall failed";
5. For resource replacement, it is not supported to modify remoteView.For example transition animations, notification icons and desktop icons.

Retrieved from https://github.com/Tencent/tinker/wiki