After you build your Android App Bundle, you should test how Google Play
uses it to generate APKs and how those APKs behave when deployed to a device.
There are two ways you should consider testing your app bundle: locally using the
bundletool command line tool and through Google Play by
uploading your bundle to the Play Console
and using a test track. This page explains how to use bundletool to test your
app bundle locally.
bundletool is the underlying tool that Gradle, Android Studio, and Google
Play use to build an Android App Bundle or convert an app bundle into the
various APKs that are deployed to devices. bundletool is also available to
you as a command line tool, so you can recreate, inspect, and verify Google
Play’s server-side build of your app’s APKs.
You should use Android Studio and the Android plugin for Gradle to
build and sign an Android App Bundle.
However, if using the IDE is not an option (for example, because you’re using a continuous
build server), you can also
build your app bundle from the command line
and sign it using
jarsigner.
By default, the IDE does not use app bundles to deploy your app to a local device for testing. However, you can modify your run/debug configuration and select the option to deploy APK from app bundle to see how it affects your app's execution.
Download bundletool
If you haven't already done so, download bundletool from the
GitHub repository.
Generate a set of APKs from your app bundle
When bundletool generates APKs from your app bundle, it includes them in a
container called an APK set archive, which uses the .apks file
extension. To generate an APK set for all device configurations your app
supports from your app bundle, use the bundletool build-apks command, as
shown below.
bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks
Note that the command above creates an APK set of unsigned APKs. If you want to deploy the APKs to a device, you need to also include your app’s signing information, as shown in the command below.
bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks --ks=/MyApp/keystore.jks --ks-pass=file:/MyApp/keystore.pwd --ks-key-alias=MyKeyAlias --key-pass=file:/MyApp/key.pwd
The table below describes the various flags and options you can set when using
the bundletool build-apks command in greater detail. Only
--bundle and --output are required—all other flags are optional.
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--bundle=path |
(Required) Specifies the path to the app bundle you built using Android Studio. To learn more, read Build your project. |
--output=path |
(Required) Specifies the name of the output `.apks` file, which contains all the APK artifacts for your app. To test the artifacts in this file on a device, go to the section about how to deploy APKs to a connected device. |
--overwrite |
Include this flag if you want to overwrite any existing output file with
the same path you specify using the --output option. If you
don't include this flag and the output file already exists, you get a
build error.
|
--aapt2=path |
Specifies a custom path to AAPT2.
By default, bundletool includes its own version of AAPT2.
|
--ks=path |
Specifies the path to the deployment keystore used to
sign the APKs. Although this flag is optional, if you don't include it,
bundletool generates unsigned APKs. You must sign APKs
to deploy them to a device. If you haven’t already done so, use
Android Studio to
generate a key and keystore.
|
--ks-pass=pass:password or --ks-pass=file:/path/to/file |
Specifies your keystore’s password. If you’re
specifying a password in plain text, qualify it with pass:.
If you’re passing the path to a file that contains the password, qualify
it with file:. If you specify a keystore using
the --ks flag without specifying --ks-pass,
bundletool prompts you for a password from the command line.
|
--ks-key-alias=alias |
Specifies the alias of the signing key you want to use. |
--key-pass=pass:password or --key-pass=file:/path/to/file |
Specifies the password for the signing key. If you’re
specifying a password in plain text, qualify it with pass:.
If you’re passing the path to a file that contains the password, qualify
it with file:. If this password is identical to the one for the keystore itself, you can omit this flag. |
--connected-device |
Instructs bundletool to build APKs that target the
configuration of a connected device. If you don’t include this flag,
bundletool generates APKs for all device configurations your
app supports.
|
--device-id=serial-number |
If you have more than one connected device, use this flag to specify the serial ID of the device to which you want to deploy your app. |
--device-spec=spec_json |
Use this flag to provide a path to a
.json file that specifies the device configuration you want
to target. To learn more, go to the section about how to
Create and use device specification JSON files.
|
--universal |
Include this flag if you want bundletool to also build an APK
that includes your app’s dynamic features and is compatible with all devices.
Note: Keep in mind, these APKs are larger than those optimized for a particular device configuration. However, they’re easier to share with internal testers who, for example, want to test your app on multiple device configurations. |
Deploy APKs to a connected device
After you generate a set of APKs, bundletool can deploy the right
combination of APKs from that set to a connected device.
For example, if you have a connected device running Android 5.0 (API level 21)
or higher, bundletool pushes the base APK, dynamic feature APKs, and
configuration APKs required to run your app on that device. Alternatively, if
your connected device is running Android 4.4 (API level 20) or lower,
bundletool looks for a compatible multi-APK and deploys it to your device.
To deploy your app from an APK set, use the install-apks command and specify
the path of the APK set using the
--apks=/path/to/apks flag, as
shown below. (If you have multiple devices connected, specify a target device
by adding the --device-id=serial-id flag.)
bundletool install-apks --apks=/MyApp/my_app.apks
Generate a device-specific set of APKs
If you’d rather not build a set of APKs for all device configurations your app
supports, you can build APKs that target only the configuration of a connected
device using the --connected-device option, as shown below. (If you have
multiple devices connected, specify a target device by including the
--device-id=serial-id flag.)
bundletool build-apks --connected-device --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks
Generate and use device specification JSON files
bundletool is capable of generating an APK set that targets a device
configuration specified by a JSON file. To first generate a JSON file for a
connected device, run the following command:
bundletool get-device-spec
bundletool creates a JSON file for your device in the directory the tool is
located. You can then pass it to bundletool to generate a set of APKs that
target only the configuration described in that JSON file as follows:
bundletool build-apks --device-spec=/MyApp/pixel2.json --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks
Manually create a device specification JSON
If you don’t have access to the device for which you want to build a targeted APK set (for example, a friend wants to try your app with a device you don’t have on-hand), you can manually create a JSON file using the following format:
{
"supportedAbis": ["arm64-v8a", "armeabi-v7a"],
"supportedLocales": ["en", "fr"],
"screenDensity": 640,
"sdkVersion": 27
}
You can then pass this JSON to the bundle extract-apks command, as described
in the previous section.
Extract device-specific APKs from an existing APK set
If you have an existing APK set and you want to extract from it a subset of APKs
that target a specific device configuration, you can use the extract-apks
command and specify a device specification JSON, as follows:
bundletool extract-apks --apks=/MyApp/my_existing_APK_set.apks --output-dir=/MyApp/my_pixel2_APK_set.apks --device-spec=/MyApp/bundletool/pixel2.json