Android App Bundle: from start to deployment

This publication format has been around for a while now and is required for the new apps on the Play Store since August 2021.

This session will cover all the steps to migrate your existing project in order to build and release a brand new AAB file to the Play Store. You will see the advantages and drawbacks of App Bundle. How you can easily configure your project, handle testing tracks and update your CI/CD (CircleCI, Bitrise) to deploy your optimized app with Fastlane. We will go even further with taking a look at Play Feature & Assets Delivery.

Transcript

1. Android App Bundle: from start to deployment Julien Salvi
2. Julien Salvi Android GDE PAUG, Punk and IPAs! Lead Android Engineer @ Aircall @JulienSalvi
3. Table of contents What’s Android App Bundle? Ship small, move fast Moving to Android App Bundle From Gradle build scripts to CI/CD Handling testing with AAB How to manage your testing sessions with AAB with bundletool Advanced AAB features A glimpse at Asset Delivery and Dynamic Features
4. What’s Android App Bundle? Ship small, move fast
5. Android App Bundle Optimizing the APK size and deliver what the user only needs are the key features of Android App Bundle. Let’s see what AAB brings to us and for our users 🚀
7. Android App Bundle What does it bring? • New publication format introduced by Google ⛓ • Produce a aab file instead of apk 🧰 • Allow to distribute smaller apk to users 📦 • Enable Play Feature and Assets Delivery 🚀 • Have a positive impact 🌱
8. Android App Bundle Let’s have a look at the APK?
9. Android App Bundle What about the .aab? Key advantages: 💥 Decrease APK size by 21 MB (-59%) for common devices 💥 Less download time for our users 💥 We save (a little bit) the planet
10. MAD Score at your service
11. Trusted by many companies
12. Do I need to migrate to AAB right now? Well... • It’s not mandatory for old apps but it has many benefits! • If you’re distributing your app outside the Play Store, maybe no • Yes! And actually you must go for the AAB format... • Since August 2021, AAB is mandatory for new apps in Play Store For the new apps...
13. Moving to Android App Bundle From Gradle build scripts to the CI/CD
14. Journey to App Bundle Update codebase Update CI/CD Deploy on Play Store Play Feature/ Asset Delivery ✨
15. Android App Bundle Gradle configuration app:bundleRelease Gradle task:
16. CI/CD with CircleCI and fastlane ✍ Installing fastlane is very easy on CircleCI 🚀 Run the playstore fastlane lane (wait for the next slide :) CircleCI setup:
17. CI/CD with CircleCI and fastlane ✍ Sign the .aab file with your production key 🚀 Release to the Play Store with fastlane ⚠ Make sure to enable App Signing on the Play Console Fastlane setup:
18. App Bundle on the Play Console
19. Handling testing with App Bundle How to manage testing sessions with AAB with bundletool
20. Handling testing with App Bundle How to test .aab files? • You cannot directly install .aab files on a device • Use the test track on the Play Console • Use Firebase App Distribution • Use bundletool for converting .aab file into .apk files Convert .aab to .apk files
21. Handling testing with App Bundle Discovering bundletool
22. Live Demo 🚀 (Wish me luck…)
23. bundletool x CI/CD
24. Bundletool with the CI/CD Install bundletool with Docker
25. Bundletool with the CI/CD Install bundletool
26. Bundletool with the CI/CD Bundletool with GitlabCI
27. Advanced ABB features A glimpse at Asset Delivery and Dynamic Features
28. What kind of features with App Bundle? Asset Delivery: • Great for games mainly: allow downloading large assets after install • You can configure when and how the asset download happens • Deliver features to your users so they have always optimized apps • Full modularization of your application Dynamic Features:
29. Asset Delivery
30. Asset Delivery Delivery mode • install-time: the assets are delivered when the app is installed. No download needed. Served as split APKs. • fast-follow: assets are downloaded automatically when app is installed. • on-demand: assets are downloaded when the app is running.
31. Asset Delivery Download size limits ℹ APK limit size: 100 MB, AAB limit size 150 MB on the Play Store • Each fast-follow and on-demand asset pack has a limit of 512 MB. • install-time asset packs cannot exceed 1 GB. • All asset packs cannot exceed 2 GB on the device. • No more than 50 asset packs per App Bundle.
32. Asset Delivery Configuration • Make sure to target version 4.0.0+ for your Android Gradle plugin my-project/ ├── app/ ├── asset-pack-name/ │ ├── src/ │ │ └── main/ │ │ └── assets/ │ │ └── <your assets> │ └── build.gradle ├── build.gradle └── settings.gradle
33. Asset Delivery Configuration
34. source: https://developer.android.com/guide/playcore/asset-delivery/integrate-java#integrate-play-asset-delivery
35. Asset Delivery Asset delivery library
36. Asset Delivery install-time asset packs
37. Asset Delivery on-demand/fast-follow asset packs
39. Dynamic Features
40. Dynamic Features Overview • Allow to give only the needed features to your users • Delivery modes: install-time, conditional or on-demand • Make sure to notify your users about the download states • Do not forget to uninstall unused modules 👀 Let’s have a quick look how we can setup a dynamic feature
42. Dynamic feature Configuration Do not include any signing config, minifyEnabled property or version name/code.
43. Dynamic feature Manifest configuration: install-time
44. Dynamic feature Manifest configuration: conditional
45. Dynamic feature Spotlight on on-demand feature
46. Dynamic feature Spotlight on on-demand feature
47. Android App Bundle • Reducing APK file size • Use Dynamic Features and Assets Delivery • Have a positive impact • AAB files cannot be directly installed on devices • You are stuck with the Play Store ecosystem The Good The Bad
48. Aircall Journey to Android App Bundle https://medium.com/inside-aircall/14d0df0d0ea7
49. Make good use of App Bundle! 📦 Do you have any questions? @JulienSalvi Thanks Julien Salvi Lead Android Engineer @ Aircall