A method comprising: receiving, by a computing device, a user input to install an application that is not currently installed at the computing device, wherein a plurality of applications (10, 12, 18) are currently installed at the computing device, and wherein each of the plurality of applications includes a respective plurality of application elements (20A-N; 22A-M, 24A-O); responsive to receiving the user input, sending, by the computing device and to an application provider, a request to install the application; receiving, by the computing device and from the application provider, an indication of one or more application elements from the respective plurality of application elements included in the plurality of applications currently installed at the computing device, wherein the one or more application elements are to be reused during installation of the application, wherein the one or more application elements include a first application element that is to be updated from a current version to a different version required by the application, and wherein the first application element is stored at the computing device in a compressed format; downloading, by the computing device and from the application provider, a patch to be applied to the first application element and a stripped version of the application that does not include the one or more application elements to be reused during installation of the application; decompressing, by the computing device, the first application element to generate a decompressed version of the first application element; decompressing, by the computing device, the patch to generate a decompressed version of the patch; applying, by the computing device, the decompressed version of the patch to the decompressed version of the first application element to generate a patched first application element; compressing, by the computing device, the patched first application element to generate a compressed patched first application element that is the different version of the first application element required by the application; and installing, by the computing device, the application at the computing device using the compressed patched first application element, the stripped version of the application, and the one or more application elements other than the first application element. receiving, by a computing device, a user input to install an application that is not currently installed at the computing device, wherein a plurality of applications (10, 12, 18) are currently installed at the computing device, and wherein each of the plurality of applications includes a respective plurality of application elements (20A-N; 22A-M, 24A-O); responsive to receiving the user input, sending, by the computing device and to an application provider, a request to install the application; receiving, by the computing device and from the application provider, an indication of one or more application elements from the respective plurality of application elements included in the plurality of applications currently installed at the computing device, wherein the one or more application elements are to be reused during installation of the application, wherein the one or more application elements include a first application element that is to be updated from a current version to a different version required by the application, and wherein the first application element is stored at the computing device in a compressed format; downloading, by the computing device and from the application provider, a patch to be applied to the first application element and a stripped version of the application that does not include the one or more application elements to be reused during installation of the application; decompressing, by the computing device, the first application element to generate a decompressed version of the first application element; decompressing, by the computing device, the patch to generate a decompressed version of the patch; applying, by the computing device, the decompressed version of the patch to the decompressed version of the first application element to generate a patched first application element; compressing, by the computing device, the patched first application element to generate a compressed patched first application element that is the different version of the first application element required by the application; and installing, by the computing device, the application at the computing device using the compressed patched first application element, the stripped version of the application, and the one or more application elements other than the first application element.