How to install AAB files on your Android smartphone?
If you are a tech enthusiast, chances are high you know what an APK file is. For well over a decade, APK files have been synonymous with Android apps. Starting August 2021, however, Google has changed the manner in which apps are uploaded to Google Play Store – thanks to the arrival and implementation of the brand new AAB format. In this article, we explore the ways in which you can install an AAB file on your Android smartphone.
Before we even start talking about this topic, it would be a great idea if you read our detailed article that explains what an AAB file is and what future it holds. The article also explains the reasons behind Google switching to this new method of app distribution. Reading the article will also lend a lot of clarity on several points we discuss below.
- Must Read:What is an AAB file for Android and how is it different from APK?
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AAB files. What you need to know
While we do have an existing article on AAB files, I felt it was necessary to address some of its aspects in this article as well, so it makes for a cohesive reading experience. For those of you only interested in sideloading AAB files, click here to go to the section where we address that.
The very first thing you need to understand about AAB files is that it is not an ‘upgraded’ version of the older APK standard. This means an AAB file is not a new file format that Android smartphones can ‘unpack’ to install an application. Instead, AAB — which is short for Android App Bundle — changes the way in which smartphones access app installation files from the Google Play Store.
Another thing to note is the fact that the arrival of AAB files do not change the actual app download process for the end user using the Google Play Store. And yes, as of now, the new AAB format is only applicable for new apps that are uploaded to the Play Store. However, most popular Android apps have already moved to the newer AAB format and going forward, this is likely to be the case for all Android apps.
AAB files does not change the manner in which you download apps from the Google Play Store / © NextPit
To understand why Google is forcing developers to move to AAB files, you need to know how the process of installing an app on your phone worked via the older APK format. To the layman, an APK file can be termed the equivalent of a ZIP file that contains the codes that constitute an app. A typical APK file also includes resources like images and audio files. However, since Android handsets come in a wide variety of hardware, developers are left with no option but to pack APKs with multiple images (to adapt to different display sizes/resolutions) – and the APK file that you download includes stuff you don’t really need for your device.
A solution to this issue was to have multiple APKs of the same app — with minor changes to these attributes and Google taking care of delivering the right APK to the right phone. However, this meant the developer had to spend extra time fine-tuning those APKs and uploading them individually. Not an ideal solution.
This is where the new AAB format comes in.
To make apps compatible with the new AAB format, developers are required to split their APKs into multiple segments. The first segment hosts something known as the base APK that will be downloaded on all smartphones and constitutes the core features of the app. The other segments are designed taking into account the variable attributes. All these segments are packaged into an AAB and hosted in the cloud Google Play Store).
Now, when you visit the Google Play Store and download an app in the AAB format, instead of downloading an entire APK, Google checks your device specifications and releases the base APK and only the relevant parts of the split APK that is the best for your device are downloaded. What this effectively does is; save a lot of bandwidth and app download and installation times end up becoming shorter.
This is why most Android users won’t notice any changes to their normal app download/installation process with the arrival of AAB. But it does make things a bit complicated for enthusiasts who often sideload apps on their phones.
How to sideload AAB files on Android?
Given that Android App Bundles are the future of Android apps, developers are already working on creating app bundle installer apps that can help you sideload AAB files and app bundles on Android devices. In fact, some of these apps are already available for download via the Google Play Store. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Using Split APKs Installer (SAI)
Split APKs Installer (SAI) is an open source app installer that not only lets you install standard APK files — but also the newer split APK files that are included within AABs. Note that Split APKs Installer may not work on phones running MIUI (which is unfortunately what I had with me). To get SAI on your phone, all you need to do is to download it from the Google Play Store.
Once you have downloaded an Android App Bundle on your device, you can open SAI and use it to pick the bundle using the file picker feature.
Split APK installer is pretty easy to use/ © NextPit
What is good about SAI is the fact that it automatically picks the split APKs that are best suited for your device.
Once the APK is selected, tap on install and the AAB shall be installed normally.
Using App Bundle Installer
Another app that you can use to install an AAB file is called the App Bundle Installer, which, again, is available for download on the Google Play Store. Note that this is a free, ad supported app that is still in development. So, chances are you may come across several bugs. Nevertheless, this is a good app to start with if you do come across an AAB file that you wish to install.
You can use App Bundle Installer to install AAB files/ © NextPit
Once you install the app, the process of selecting an AAB file is as easy as selecting a file from a file manager.
Once the AAB file is selected, tap on the ‘Install File” button and follow the on-screen instructions.
Using APKMirror installer
APKMirror is a popular app repository that has traditionally hosted a lot of trusted APK files. Currently, APKMirror lets you install app bundles using its own installer called APKMirror installer. You can install it directly from their website by clicking here or download it from the Google Play Store.
APKMirror installer cannot install AAB files yet and uses its own extension to install app bundles / © NextPit
Note that APKMirror, as of now, only lets you download app bundles in its own .apkm format. So, to see APKMirror installer in action, you will need to download an app bundle in the supported format.
Now that we have addressed some of the methods using which you can install an Android App Bundle on your smartphone, you might be also aware that this is no longer the simple APK installation process it once used to be. Since the world is still in the process of making the switch to AAB files and app bundles, we may see easier methods to install AAB files appear a few months or years down the line.
Installing an Android App Bundle (.aab) on an Android Device
Often times we face a situation where we have an app bundle and we have to test this bundle on an actual device before uploading it to the play store. Although .aab files have multiple benefits like:
- App Size Reduction
- Faster Downloads
- Dynamic Deliver and many more.
But the issue with the app bundles is we can not install an app bundle directly on an android device.
Why do we want to install an app bundle in the first place?
There could be multiple reasons you would like to install an app bundle on your android device. The most common is that The developer directly provides you with the app bundle and you want to test this bundle on a specific device before uploading it to the play store.
Introducing Bundletool
Bundletool is an underlying tool used by Android Studio and Gradle plugin for generating android app bundles. Bundletool can also be used to convert an app bundle into a .apks file which can then be installed on different devices. For our purpose, we will be using a jar file of bundle tool using which we will be able to generate a . Apks file, and then we will install this Apks file on a target device.
Pre-requisites
- Download the bundle tool jar from their official GitHub page: https://github.com/google/bundletool/releases
- You should have java installed on your system (1.8 or above).
- You should have access to the following information:
a. Keystore file using which the bundle was signed.
b. Alias of the Keystore.
c. Password of the Keystore.
Once all the pre-requisites are met we can proceed with the .apks file generation.
Generating .Apks file from App Bundle
To generate a .Apks file we will use the following command:
java -jar bundletool.jar build-apks — bundle=<BUNDLE_PATH> — output=<GENERATED_FILE>.apks — ks=<KEYSTORE_PATH> — ks-pass=pass:<KEYSTORE_PASSWORD> — ks-key-alias=<ALIAS> — key-pass=pass:<KEY_PASSWORD>
Example:
java -jar bundletool.jar build-apks — bundle=demo_app.aab — output=demo_app.apks — ks=AppKeyStore — ks-pass=pass:android — ks-key-alias=demo — key-pass=pass:android
Please note that I have placed all the files in a single folder so for ease of demonstration and understanding. In case if Keystore file and app bundle is present in a different folder then we will have to specify the full path of the files in the — ks and — bundle params.
Once the command gets executed successfully we will be able to see the generated .apks file with the name we have provided in the command.
Installing .Apks file on an Actual Device
To install an Apks file on a target device we will use the following command.
java -jar bundletool.jar install-apks — apks=demo_app.apks
Please note: Currently we are in the same folder in which we generated the .apks file. In case the .apks file is present in some other folder, Please specify the full path in the — apks attribute.
Once the above command gets executed, You will observe that the application is now installed on the target device.
Install Android App Bundle on device
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?
14 Answers 14
Short answer:
Longer answer:
Android App Bundles is the default publishing format for apps on the Google Play Store. But Android devices require .apk files to install applications.
The Play Store or any other source that you’re installing from will 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.
Installing the aab directly from the device, I couldn’t find a way for that.
But there is a way to install it through your command line using the following documentation You can install apk to a device through BundleTool
According to «@Albert Vila Calvo» comment he noted that to install bundletools using HomeBrew use brew install bundletool
You can now install extract apks from aab file and install it to a device
Extracting apk files from through the next command
java -jar bundletool-all-0.3.3.jar build-apks —bundle=bundle.aab —output=app.apks —ks=my-release-key.keystore —ks-key-alias=alias —ks-pass=pass:password
- —bundle -> Android Bundle .aab file
- —output -> Destination and file name for the generated apk file
- —ks -> Keystore file used to generate the Android Bundle
- —ks-key-alias -> Alias for keystore file
- —ks-pass -> Password for Alias file (Please note the ‘pass’ prefix before password value)
Then you will have a file with extension .apks So now you need to install it to a device
java -jar bundletool-all-0.6.0.jar install-apks —adb=/android-sdk/platform-tools/adb —apks=app.apks
- —adb -> Path to adb file
- —apks -> Apks file need to be installed
You cannot install app bundle [NAME].aab directly to android device because it is publishing format, but there is way to extract the required apk from bundle and install it to you device, the process is as follow
- Download bundletool from here
- run this in your terminal,
- Last step will generate a file named as out_bundle_archive_set.apks , just rename it to out_bundle_archive_set.zip and extract the zip file, jump into the folder out_bundle_archive_set > standalones , where you will seee a list of all the apks
There goes the reference from android developers for bundle tools link
If you want to install apk from your aab to your device for testing purpose then you need to edit the configuration before running it on the connected device.
- Go to Edit Configurations
- Select the Deploy dropdown and change it from «Default apk» to «APK from app bundle».
- Apply the changes and then run it on the device connected. Build time will increase after making this change.
This will install an apk directly on the device connected from the aab.
For those, who want single universal.apk that can run on every android device:
Now, you can get your universal.apk
This worked for me on a mac. You need to use a tool called bundletool You can install it incase if not already installed using brew
Run this command to extract and store the apks file at the desired location
Install on a connected Android device
To convert aab ro apk follow this simple steps:
1.Download bundltool-all-1.14.1.jar from this link
2.Move [your-aab-file-name].aab and bundletool-all-1.14.1.jar to a Desktop.
3.Open Terminal and write this code cd .\Desktop\ and press enter.
4.Now write this code and press enter:
5.After that you have a file named "app-release.aab.apks" on your Desktop, open it with WinRAR
If you’re using Maui at this point Visual Studio 2022 only creates AAB files; however, you can create an APK from a command line.
Change directory to where your project is located and run this:
PS C:/folder-with-aab-file> java -jar C:\dev\bundletool-all-1.9.1\bundletool.jar build-apks —bundle=app-release.aab —output=app-release.aab.apks —mode=universal
PS C:/folder-with-aab-file> ren app-release.aab.apks app-release.aab.apks.zip
After descompact zip file, the apk file’ll with the name: universal.apk
If you want to install the APP bundle without using PLAY STORE, You need to change your build variant to "release" at Android studio.
If you cannot build App yourself but have a release bundle, then refer to the most popular answer.
Go to Android Studio > Build > Select Build Variant..
Once you do this your build configuration may start showing errors. This is because you now need to provide signing details in this configuration as well (this refers signing details from build.gradle)
you may either Edit the configuration and go to the Fix button at the bottom which will ask you to fill in signing details.
Or you may edit the build.gradle Make sure you provide buildTypes <> and signingConfigs <>
There is one or two minutes of delay before Android Studio starts reflecting correctly. Otherwise, you may do a clean rebuild and then run the app.
When you run the app this time it will be installed in release mode on the target device. You may need a way to identify the Build Variant of the installed app. You may show the build name and variant somewhere in your app. Or if you have a button somewhere which shows only in debug mode you can check that.
If you have the project you can just build an app with android studio or push it directly to the device if you run a debug or release config with the device connected and selected as the target so long as you enable adb in developer mode on the device and tap trust this computer when you connect it to your machine.
But if you have the bundle because you’re trying to install an app pulled from one phone onto another, there are free online services that convert play store links into a direct download of the apk. Just turn on add debugging on the device and adb install <path-to-apk> from the terminal.
If you have more than one device connected with adb enabled you can adb devices to get a list of their identifiers and adb install <path-to-apk> <device-id> will work as well. Or you can use adb to your advantage and do many things on multiple devices at once depending on your needs. There’s even ways to adb over wifi.
You will need adb from the android-sdk tools to do any of this though, with Android Studio installed you would have a local installation already but it may not be in your path. However studios terminal likely has access to it since it would be the sdk path your IDE has saved in preferences.. If not you can download a standalone sdk/find out which one studio is using from it’s preferences and either
How to Install Android App Bundles (AAB) on Phone
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Check How to Install Android App Bundles (AAB) on Phone
Assuming the PUBG APK package size is 3 GB, this app remains the same for all Android users regardless of their device settings. If PUBG has support for more than 10 languages, you only need to use English. The remaining language resources unnecessarily consume storage space on the device. It also installs any display settings with this APK on the device, which is totally useless for the device architecture. But AAB makes sure not to install unnecessary resources that consume space on your device, which is partly not suitable for you, but it is signed under the APK package. If there are some major technological advances, it even has its downsides. The AAB does not support other app stores, for example, B. Amazon App Store or Huawei App Gallery.
Users need to export the AAB extension to APK to share with other users. It will be a challenging task for developers who need to repackage their APK packages to release on other third-party stores. It also reduces the chance of an app being ported unless the developer maintains a distinct version of the APK file. Now the AAB for delivering Android apps needs to be split into smaller APK files based on device configurations. Each shared APK corresponds to a specific configuration, unlike the APK sent and downloaded in the same format.
Install .apkm files using APKMirror
- After downloading the APKMirror .apkm file, open the APKMirror Installer app (free, with in-app purchases). Then select the .apkm file from the “Browse Files” option. Tap on the name of the .apkm file, followed by tapping on “Install Package” from the pop-up menu.
- APKMirror Installer will display the app details. Next, tap “Install App” at the bottom, followed by “Install” on the popup again to complete the process. If you are using the APKMirror installer for the first time, Android will ask for app installation permissions. It will redirect you to the Settings app and you can enable that option.
- Once the installation is complete, you can tap “Open App” to start using the app. That’s it. You have successfully installed an Android app bundle on your device.
Install .apks and split apk files using SAI
You can install .apks, .xapk, split apk files, and unencrypted .apkm files using the Split APK Installer (SAI). SAI is considered the gold standard for installing app packages in the Android community. Here’s how to use the SAI app to install split apps: