Android Market Now Has Multiple APK Support

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Android is said to be a fragmented mobile ecosystem. Just look at the devices: you have smartphones, tablets and several hybrid devices in between. This can be troublesome for app developers. Google has recently enabled multiple APK support, though, which can help address this problem.

If you’ve experienced installing Android apps from third party services (outside of Market), you’ll know that .APK files are basically android app packages, which install applications on your smartphone or tablet. Downloading apps from Market essentially entails downloading the app’s APK. However, until now, each application listed in Android Market can only correspond to a single .APK. This meant that the package installer will be the same regardless of the device brand and type.

The trouble here is ensuring compatibility. What if the app were designed for big tablet computer screen sizes? What if it’s meant for small smartphone screens? For most developers, the solution used to be multiple entries. But now Google is allowing each listed app to have as many .APK installer files as necessary.

These APKs are complete, independent APKs that share the same package name, but contain code and resources to target different Android platform versions, screen sizes, or GL texture-compression formats. When users download or purchase your app, Android Market chooses the right APK to deliver based on the characteristics of the device.

Aside from being able to release multiple versions for different platforms, multiple APKs can also mean that users can be given a choice to download beta versions. No longer will there be just a single application code, but it can be forked into different versions, meant for different needs. Of course, for the average user, Market will automatically detect the device type and select the appropriate APK.

Google has updated the Developer Console, and the new multi-APK features are already in place.