Google Play Store may have just made installing APKs harder
Google introduced the Android App Bundle (AAB) at its I/O 2018 event, allowing developers to build their applications as bundles as a more efficient way to deliver them to users. The change allowed Google Play Store to only download the specific parts it needed on smartphones and other devices during app installation, potentially saving storage space. However, this only applied to apps downloaded through the Play Store, while sideloading apps still required the installation of fat Android Application Packages (APKs). A recent claim on social media suggests that the process of sideloading may have become a bit more cumbersome due to recent changes implemented by the company.
Sideloading Android Apps
In a after On X (formerly Twitter), Artem Russakovskii, the founder of APK hosting platform APKMirror, claimed that Google has stopped generating fat APKs for many apps. This means that users who want to install APK files will have to download bundles. While fat APKs can be installed by simply downloading a large APK file from official websites or third-party sources, bundles often require an extra step.
FYI, since people email @APKMirror multiple times a day about this… it seems that Google suddenly stopped generating big APKs for many apps, and that only bundles are available from now on.
As far as I know, there’s nothing we can do about it.https://t.co/OrcKXDA7Kc
— Artem Russakovskii (@ArtemR) August 4, 2024
To install these packages, third-party tools such as Split APKs Installer (SAI) are now required. As per the claims, many of the apps will only be available in a bundle format, requiring users to download these tools before they can install the APK on their device.
Why it matters
According to Before Google, fat APKs were compatible with multiple devices depending on their screen size, CPU architecture, and more. This allowed developers to create a single package file instead of having to release multiple packages for different device types. While bundling everything into one fat APK was said to make it easier for users to download, it resulted in unused content taking up storage space on the device that could have been used for other purposes.
This problem is claimed to be addressed by Google’s AAB. Instead of cramming the requirements for all devices into one big APK, Google Play Store only downloads a portion of the file needed to run the program on that specific device, resulting in a reduction of the space taken up by the application.
