Android TV and Google TV They have a serious storage problem. While mobiles are starting to have a base of 64GB, smart TVs generally only contain 8GB. As a result, and as the operating system takes up more and more space, a rocket scientist may not see that what is left for applications is rather meager, as user data is usually delivered through some external device.

Due to the spatial problems presented by smart TVs with Android TV and Google TV, the Mountain View giant decided increase usage of Android App Bundle (AAB) as a replacement for using the APK directly to save space.

According to Google AAB has a 20% smaller average size compared to using APK files directly, since the generated package is customized to the device; it makes it possible archive applications with a profit of up to 60% of the occupied space each app is less likely to be uninstalled by the user; is applicable to all Android surfaces; facilitates delivery by providing a single artifact with all application code and resources; In addition, it is able to provide more security by allowing developers to recover a loading key if it is lost or compromised.

It was announced by Mountain View Google TV and Android TV will start requiring AAB from May 2023, so you gave it six months to transition. He also calculated that in most cases it would take an engineer only three days on average to migrate from APK to AAB. We’ll see how app developers take it, as they’re generally a sector that tends to resist change, except when it comes from Apple.

AAB is not a new invention and not only that, but it has already been implemented in the mobile version of Android. According to the official documentation, “it’s a publication format that includes all the resources and compiled code of your app, but delegates APK generation and signing to Google Play. Google Play uses your app bundle to create and deliver APK packages optimized for each device’s configuration, so only the code and resources needed to run your app on a specific device are downloaded.”

Of course, when we see that mobile phones have created storage space in the order of tens of gigabytes, it is likely that AAB will not perform any miracle after allbut it would have to be at least a profit for the user.