APK vs AAB: which format to upload to Diawi
Supported format
Diawi accepts APK files (.apk). Android App Bundles (.aab) are not supported.
What is the difference?
- APK (Android Package) is the traditional format for distributing and installing Android apps. It is a self-contained file that can be installed directly on a device.
- AAB (Android App Bundle) is a publishing format introduced by Google. It is used to upload apps to the Google Play Store, where Google generates optimized APKs for each device configuration. An
.aabfile cannot be installed directly on a device.
Since 2021, Google requires the AAB format for new apps published on the Play Store. As a result, many build pipelines now produce .aab files by default.
How to generate an APK
If your build produces an .aab file, you can generate an APK instead:
In Android Studio
Build > Build Bundle(s) / APK(s) > Build APK(s)
With Gradle
./gradlew assembleRelease
instead of ./gradlew bundleRelease.
The APK will be located in app/build/outputs/apk/release/.
From an existing AAB file
Google provides the bundletool command-line tool to generate APKs from an .aab file:
bundletool build-apks --bundle=app.aab --output=app.apks
bundletool extract-apks --apks=app.apks --output-dir=output/ --device-spec=device.json
