Install Android App Bundle on device

android android-app-bundle
prfarlow picture prfarlow · May 18, 2018 · Viewed 106.3k times · Source

I built my project using the new Android App Bundle format. With APK files, I can download the APK to my device, open it, and immediately install the app. I downloaded my app as a bundle (.aab format) and my Nexus 5X running Android 8.1 can't open the file. Is there any way to install AABs on devices in the same convenient manner as APKs?

Answer

keyboardsurfer picture keyboardsurfer · May 22, 2018

Short answer:

Not directly.

Longer answer:

Android App Bundles is a publishing format. Android devices require .apk files to install applications.

The PlayStore or any other source that you're installing from needs to extract apks from the bundle, sign each one and then install them specific to the target device.

The conversion from .aab to .apk is done via bundletool.

You can use Internal App Sharing to upload a debuggable build of your app to the Play Store and share it with testers.

Related questions

Difference between apk (.apk) and app bundle (.aab)

Recently Google brought up a new feature app bundle which is a pretty similar concept to APK except its flexibility and architectural differences. I have read out lots of blog/articles to understand how app bundle works in devices in …

Read More
Generate Apk file from aab file (android app bundle)

Is there any way to generate an apk file from android app Bundle via terminal or using android studio?

Read More
How do I install bundletool?

Although the docs mentioned If you haven't already done so, download bundletool from the GitHub repository. However, the repo contains only a jar file. How do I install it so that I can run with 'bundletool' command just like the …

Read More