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ASTC Is Not Always the Best Mobile Texture Format for Unity on iOS and Android

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A detailed technical guide published on DEV Community in July 2026 challenges the assumption that ASTC is automatically the correct texture compression format for Unity projects targeting iOS and Android. On Apple hardware, the A8 chip marks the boundary for LDR ASTC support, while Android developers are advised to use AAB with ETC2 as the default format and ASTC as a supplemental option via Texture Compression Targeting on Google Play. ASTC block sizes such as 4x4, 6x6, and 8x8 are not quality presets but define how many texels are encoded in a fixed 128-bit block, directly affecting memory footprint. The guide recommends using 6x6 for general textures, 4x4 to 5x5 for text and high-detail UI, and 8x8 for low-frequency backgrounds where visual quality allows. It also clarifies that PNG or JPEG file size has no direct bearing on GPU memory usage, which is determined solely by the runtime GPU texture format.

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ASTC Is Not Always the Best Mobile Texture Format for Unity on iOS and Android · ShortSingh