Google Play Store Suddenly Stops Providing Full Android APK Packages

TapTechNews August 5th news, according to the latest news from the APK providing website, APKMirrors, Google Play Store has suddenly stopped providing full Android application APK packages, which will affect the sideloading installation of some applications.

Google is currently vigorously promoting the new Android AppBundle (AAB) package format. Since August 2021, Google Play has begun to require new applications to be published in the AAB format, which replaces the APK as the standard publishing format.

AAB is a new packaging method that will no longer require an APK to contain all the content for all types of Android devices, which means the package size will be smaller and the download speed will be faster. Correspondingly, AAB cannot be downloaded and installed directly in the Android system like APK, but needs to be deployed through Google Play or some third-party tools.

According to the issue submission page of APKMirrors on GitHub, a netizen asked whether APKMirrors can provide the complete APK package of X/Twitter, and the reply below said:

Many applications have suddenly had this happen. It looks like Google has completely stopped generating fat APKs (TapTechNews note: that is, the complete installation package) for them, and only provides bundle packages from now on. I once guessed that this day would eventually come, and now it seems to be true. As far as I know, there is nothing we can do.