4 ms·

Google is killing the .apk format and it's a bad thing

68 points by boba7 5y ago

aliasEli 5y ago
It's forcing developers into the Google Play store. More details in [0]. [0] https://www.slashgear.com/android-app-bundles-are-replacing-apks-why-it-matters-29680485/ https://www.slashgear.com/android-app-bundles-are-replacing-...
- airhead969 5y ago
  Walling-up an open garden
fuckgoogle1111 5y ago
fuck google
hypertele-Xii 5y ago
I guess this is the last Google phone I ever buy then. I don't even sideload many apps, I just think it's immoral. To be fair to Google, it did erase "don't be evil" from its motto.
- pyentropy 5y ago
  The article doesn't say that sideloading will stop working, it's just that Play Store will completely switch to the format. This has to do more with the exponentially growing storage req of apps more than anything. Average user is gonna benefit a lot, especially since Bundles have a 150MB upper limit. Android cannot afford being a walled garden like Apple and I don't see them limiting installations. As long as they get users into putting data into Google services, they'll let both OEMs and users customize anything in the platform.
andrewmcwatters 5y ago
It's settled then. It's time for more phone Linux distros.
- airhead969 5y ago
  We need some FreeBSD ones too for fairness' sake. ;)
slownews45 5y ago
Going to have some meaningful size savings -> play store CDN traffic has got to be pretty incredible. I don't think devs were really creating enough APK's on the various device dimensions to do this efficiently themselves. They make it sound like you can't distribute your code using other platforms but you can (so far) based on what I've seen (using .apk) But smaller app sizes (and the other benefits) are not anti-consumer features.
ptrwis 5y ago
I thought that maybe at least PWA apps could be bundled this way, but I can't find anything about it
croes 5y ago
Windows 11 makes it possible to install APK, Google kills APK. Interesting coincidence.
- UncleMeat 5y ago
  APK is still the distribution model. You just don't upload APKs directly to Play.
GekkePrutser 5y ago
This is not good. It means aurora store will probably break and it'll be necessary to log in with a Google account into the play store :( I install all my apps with aurora to cut down on data collected about me by Google. I don't log in with a Google account at all. For F-droid it's a lesser problem because they require open source software anyway and make reproducible builds to APK themselves. The problem is just that it's really hard to live with only F-droid apps :(
kappuchino 5y ago
Question: Will this also impact projects who test and observe behaviour of apps like the german https://mobilsicher.de/ https://mobilsicher.de/?

68 points by boba7 5y ago

It's forcing developers into the Google Play store. More details in [0]. [0] https://www.slashgear.com/android-app-bundles-are-replacing-apks-why-it-matters-29680485/ https://www.slashgear.com/android-app-bundles-are-replacing-...

airhead969 5y ago
Walling-up an open garden

fuckgoogle1111 5y ago

fuck google

hypertele-Xii 5y ago

I guess this is the last Google phone I ever buy then. I don't even sideload many apps, I just think it's immoral. To be fair to Google, it did erase "don't be evil" from its motto.

pyentropy 5y ago
The article doesn't say that sideloading will stop working, it's just that Play Store will completely switch to the format. This has to do more with the exponentially growing storage req of apps more than anything. Average user is gonna benefit a lot, especially since Bundles have a 150MB upper limit. Android cannot afford being a walled garden like Apple and I don't see them limiting installations. As long as they get users into putting data into Google services, they'll let both OEMs and users customize anything in the platform.

andrewmcwatters 5y ago

It's settled then. It's time for more phone Linux distros.

airhead969 5y ago
We need some FreeBSD ones too for fairness' sake. ;)

slownews45 5y ago

Going to have some meaningful size savings -> play store CDN traffic has got to be pretty incredible. I don't think devs were really creating enough APK's on the various device dimensions to do this efficiently themselves. They make it sound like you can't distribute your code using other platforms but you can (so far) based on what I've seen (using .apk) But smaller app sizes (and the other benefits) are not anti-consumer features.

ptrwis 5y ago

I thought that maybe at least PWA apps could be bundled this way, but I can't find anything about it

croes 5y ago

Windows 11 makes it possible to install APK, Google kills APK. Interesting coincidence.

UncleMeat 5y ago
APK is still the distribution model. You just don't upload APKs directly to Play.

GekkePrutser 5y ago

This is not good. It means aurora store will probably break and it'll be necessary to log in with a Google account into the play store :( I install all my apps with aurora to cut down on data collected about me by Google. I don't log in with a Google account at all. For F-droid it's a lesser problem because they require open source software anyway and make reproducible builds to APK themselves. The problem is just that it's really hard to live with only F-droid apps :(

kappuchino 5y ago

Question: Will this also impact projects who test and observe behaviour of apps like the german https://mobilsicher.de/ https://mobilsicher.de/?