Google sunsets Android APKs for App Bundles instead
Andy Walker / Android Authority
TL; DR
- From August 2021, all new Android APKs from Google will have to end up in the Play Store as app bundles instead.
- This inevitably leads to smaller file sizes and other benefits for the end user.
- However, it will also require app developers to publish APK versions of their apps to other channels outside of the Play Store as they do not support app bundles.
Android apps have been on the market in APK format (which stands for Android Package) since Android has existed. In 2018, however, Google introduced a new format called Android App Bundles, or AAB (with the filename * .aab). Google announced that this new format would result in smaller app file sizes and easier ways to control various aspects of apps. Of the millions of apps in the Google Play Store, thousands are already using the AAB system.
Google announced today that the AAB format will officially replace Android APKs. This means that from August this year, all new apps submitted to the Google Play Store must be in AAB format. Apps that are currently APKs can stay that way – at least for now.
No More Android APKs: Good News or Bad News?
Ultimately, this is good news for the average consumer. For example, Android app bundles can be up to 15% smaller than Android APKs. Developers will also have more control over how they distribute updates to apps, which will likely result in faster and more efficient app updates.
However, there are two major problems with AABs. The first is that developers who want to publish their apps to other distribution channels – such as the Amazon App Store or Huawei’s App Gallery – have to manually export APK versions of their apps. This doesn’t require a lot of effort on the part of the developer, but it would mean that any developer who wants their app, just appearing in the Play Store would have that power. In these cases, end users would have to export AABs as Android APKs themselves, as * .aab files would not work in alternative stores.
Connected: An introduction to the Google Play Console for Android developers
The other problem is that developers have to give their app signing key to Google in order to export an AAB app as an APK. This gives Google quite a bit of power. The app signing key is basically evidence that a particular developer created a particular app. While it is unlikely that Google would ever do this, it is possible that it will sign apps on behalf of a developer. It is also possible for someone to gain access to this key and then sign apps for themselves. As a result, some developers are not too keen on the app bundle format.
The bottom line, however, is that all new Android apps in the Google Play Store must be AABs. There is no way around. This is a bold new direction away from Android APKs, but we’ll have to wait for the dust to settle before drawing any conclusions.
