Android release FAQ

Here are some commonly asked questions about deployment for
Android apps.

When should I build app bundles versus APKs?

The Google Play Store recommends that you deploy app bundles
over APKs because they allow a more efficient delivery of the
application to your users. However, if you’re distributing
your application by means other than the Play Store,
an APK may be your only option.

What is a fat APK?

A fat APK is a single APK that contains binaries for multiple
ABIs embedded within it. This has the benefit that the single APK
runs on multiple architectures and thus has wider compatibility,
but it has the drawback that its file size is much larger,
causing users to download and store more bytes when installing
your application. When building APKs instead of app bundles,
it is strongly recommended to build split APKs,
as described in build an APK using the
--split-per-abi flag.