In recent times, Google has been working to make Android apps smaller. Because of that change, the method of putting in (sideloading) Android APKs outdoors the Play Retailer might need an extra step.
Google introduced the Android App Bundle (AAB) at I/O 2018 and made it the default format for brand spanking new purposes in 2021. Builders construct their apps as these bundles, which include the assorted recordsdata for numerous display sizes, languages, CPU architectures, and variations of Android. Reasonably than downloading the complete bundles, Google Play solely downloads the parts it wants for apps to run at their greatest on a selected machine, conserving cupboard space. Most significantly, Google Play handles all of this mechanically as soon as the AAB has been uploaded.
Whereas most apps had been delivered to units in an optimized means, Google Play was additionally able to creating full-size all-inclusive APKs from AAB recordsdata. These recordsdata had been handy for sharing apps/updates with others, each regionally and thru providers like APKMirror.
In line with Artem Russakovskii of APKMirror at present, “Google stopped producing fats APKs for a lot of apps totally impulsively, and solely bundles will probably be obtainable any longer.”
“Fats APKs” had been customary earlier than Android app bundles. Google defined the totally different as such in 2018:
…you possibly can construct and model a number of APKs for every machine configuration in a single launch. This rapidly will get out of hand if you wish to optimize for display sizes, CPU architectures, goal each 32-bit and 64-bit, and so forth. You’ll be able to find yourself constructing a whole lot of APKs for every launch. It’s a ache, and most builders don’t do it. Many simply put the whole lot in a single, ‘fats’ APK, and customers find yourself with unused, duplicated content material on their machine.
To customers who solely set up apps from the Play Retailer, there’s no impression.
Nevertheless, fats APKs matter when customers extract an utility (like a brand new model/replace) from their machine and add that file to providers like APKMirror. Others can obtain and easily set up fats APKs — utilizing Android’s system Package deal Installer — with out the necessity for some other instruments.
Bundles require different instruments just like the APKMirror Installer and Cut up APKs Installer (SAI) apps, or ADB, to put in.
In follow, this introduces one additional step to putting in apps from these websites. It’s not the most important ache level within the grand scheme.
Taking a look at Google’s personal apps on APKMirror (which supply bundles as .apkm recordsdata), individuals are nonetheless encountering fats APKs. That’s not the case for newer purposes, particularly from third-party builders.
Extracting APKs to add to third-party providers is just not essentially a consideration the Play Retailer has to make, although Google is conscious of the issue:
Partial installs of sideloaded apps—that’s, apps that aren’t put in utilizing the Google Play Retailer and are lacking a number of required break up APKs—fail on all Google-certified units and units operating Android 10 (API stage 29) or greater. When downloading your app by way of the Google Play Retailer, Google ensures that every one required elements of the app are put in.
Android itself is just not making any modifications to sideloading apps, with builders that distribute outdoors the Play Retailer capable of hold providing fats APKs.
Kyle Bradshaw contributed to this publish
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