Mobile Export Update: Android apps now export as .aab files

Due to Google’s new Play Store rules, .apk files are no longer accepted for app uploads. All new apps are required to use their new Android App Bundle (.aab) packaging format instead.

In order to continue to support the Play Store, the Android mobile export now produces .aab files instead of .apk. Now any time you export your games for Android, the result will be an “.aab” package instead of an “.apk” file.

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R.i.p. notes and waves

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@grazer are there any potential advantages that aab files will grant us in the future?

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The only advantage I see is that Google will allow you to publish apps :man_shrugging:

They no longer accept .apk files, or I would probably have just left it exporting to .apk directly.

In theory, the .aab package format allows for smaller app distributions since the apk gets assembled by the app store at download time, and can be selective about what gets sent to each device. In practice, it probably won’t result in much of a difference for the typical Flowlab game.

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R.i.p. notes and waves

What’s wrong with Notes & Waves? Did this update break it somehow?

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I was about to try exporting it to the Google Play Store, and I don’t have pc to get another download.
Edit: this didn’t make much sense, the context is that my mobile download is APK.

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i have tried to export my game to android but there is no .aab file or a apk file? Am i doing something wrong or missing something obvious?

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Hello,
Is the file not downloading, or does it not show up in your files? Please clarify and then we can help more.

Hey @FlynnIllustration - welcome to the forum, sorry to hear that you’re having trouble. It’s possible that there was a problem with the export. Does nothing download when you click the “android” button after exporting?

If you post a link to the game you exported, I can take a look and see if there was a problem with the export process.

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tell me if im wrong but arnt aab files much smaller than an apk? also will this break compatibilty with itch.io (yes I know you can convert in android studio but thats a long and drawn out proccess

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