.aab vs .apk: Android App Bundle or APK?

An APK is what a phone, tablet or TV actually installs. An Android App Bundle is what you upload to Google Play: Google describes it as a publishing format that contains all your app’s compiled code and resources and leaves APK generation and signing to Google Play, which then serves each device only the code and resources it needs.

Google Play requires an app bundle for new apps since August 2021, and for new and existing TV apps since June 2023. So for Android TV on Google Play, an .aab is the format to build.

Other stores and tools still work with the APK. Amazon’s submission API, which VibeView uses, takes only an APK; the Amazon Developer Console, Live App Testing included, also accepts an .aab. An emulator or a sideload installs an APK directly. A Gradle project makes one with assembleRelease and a bundle with bundleRelease.

In VibeView. A Google Play submission uploads whichever file your production profile produced, .aab or .apk. VibeView’s Amazon Appstore submissions take only an .apk, so a common setup keeps the production profile on bundleRelease for Google Play and adds a signed amazon profile that runs assembleRelease. With --store amazon, --latest picks the newest production .apk, and an .apk over 300 MB is refused before anything is sent. If you only have an .aab, upload it in the Amazon Developer Console instead. To try an .apk on a live Android emulator in your browser, see how to run an APK online. See Build an .apk.