Re: How do you decide when to use the APK versus the split APK?

Marion, 2025-03-19 03:35:

I am populating a grandchild's phone & one of the first apps I add is
Muntashirakon App Manager which happens to have an APK &  an APKs file.
 <https://github.com/MuntashirAkon/AppManager/releases/tag/v4.0.1>
 
This is the APK:
 <https://github.com/MuntashirAkon/AppManager/releases/download/v4.0.1/AppManager_v4.0.1.apk>
 
This is the split APK:
 <https://github.com/MuntashirAkon/AppManager/releases/download/v4.0.1/AppManager_v4.0.1.apks>
 
I basically know nothing about these split APKs. I admit that.
I'm curious though, which YOU prefer when you have the choice.

The "Split APK" format is just a variation of "app bundles" (AAB) which
contain multiple packages for different languages, devices etc. in one
bundle so the device will only install what it needs.

For example: if you only need English but the app supports 10 other
languages as well, you might save some space using an app bundle, since
only one language will be installed.

What I care about is being able to re-use the APK years later, if
necessary, not so much for this particular app, but for other apps (like
the pulsemsm or nova launcher apps which have last known good versions).

In this case you should always use APK - this is always a single package
containing everything.

However: in some cases you *may* need multiple APK versions for
different device types (32/64 bit, different CPU architecture etc.). But
this is usually only the case, if the app contains native machine code
as well which is not the case for the AppManager.


--
Arno Welzel
https://arnowelzel.de