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It's not being changed. The end format is still APK.

• roody15 5y ago
  Except google gets the source code first and then creates custom specific APK’s. Not sure this step is really “needed”.
  • tdeck 5y ago
    nit: Google doesn't get the source code. It gets essentially the contents of the APK (compiled DEX code, compiled native code, assets, and resources) along with some additional protobuf files that contain metadata. Google can then decide how to split that up into APKs, generate those, and sign them. In theory Google could add or alter things before signing them. The alternative to this was called Multi-APK and hardly anyone used it. It required generating and uploading a large number of different APKs and then uploading gigabytes of mostly-redundant APKs to the Play Store. That allowed you to manage the signing and minimize install size, but it was such a pain to orchestrate that it wasn't practical in most cases.
• Avamander 5y ago
  That's a very narrow technical view of the thing. It's pretty much only a .zip after AAB. You're losing universality, signature checks, tamper-resistance which made apks apks.