Even if you sideload an APK from a third-party source, the Google Play Store checks the signing key to ascertain that nothing has been tampered with. However, many developers have expressed concern regarding the sharing of private signing key with Google.Īs I mentioned above, the signing key is the most important information to verify the integrity of the APK. The AAB format reduces the app size, and developers don’t have to build multiple APKs. Looking at what AAB brings to the table, it seems like a great alternative to APK.

The Sharing of Private Signing Key with Google

That’s the main proposition of AAB vs APK, but there is more to unpack. It can create a much smaller AAB bundle, one that’s compact in size, installs in a jiffy, and eats lesser data for low-end devices. Now, Google can generate and serve optimized APKs to users based on their device’s configuration. With AAB, developers hand over everything to Google – the app code, assets, heavy resources, all language packs, and most importantly, the private app signing key.

So what really changes here? Starting August 2021, developers don’t have to handle and manage a whole bunch of APKs for a wide array of devices. Basically, AAB is a publishing format that a developer submits to the Play Store while APK is the packaging format for Android apps that you install on your device. In fact, AAB is a container that hosts a base APK and multiple split-APKs. In comparison to APK, the AAB format is not a completely new distribution package. The company introduced AAB at Google I/O 2018, and now, nearly two years later, Google is mandating that you need to submit new apps in the AAB format on the Play Store. That, in turn, will help reduce the app size, installation time, and bandwidth consumption. Google wants to solve this problem and shoulder most of this burden for developers with Android App Bundles (AAB). This results in a bulky APK with a larger app size that requires longer installation time and eats up more bandwidth. To avoid this complex and time-intensive work, most developers build a Universal APK that comes with all the resources (language packs, codes, and more) even though you may not require most of it on that specific device. They not just have to develop apps but also manage multiple APKs to support a boatload of devices. However, all of this puts an enormous task in the developer’s hands. When a user taps on the “Install” button in the Play Store, the correct and most-suited APK is then installed on their device. In an ideal situation, a developer has to build and upload multiple APKs on the Play Store based on the user’s region, processor type, and screen density.

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