Installing Android apps outside Google Play just got harder

One of the satisfying things about Android has always been the ability to (more or less) do what you want with it.

Although Google requires you to toggle a setting to allow you to install apps from sources outside of Google Play, it has been a simple process for a number of years. But there's a change taking place that might make it a little more complicated.

Being able to use apps that originate from outside Google Play has a number of advantages – it gives you freedom to install different versions of an app, it allows you to test apps (or app versions) that haven't yet been released, or even develop your own.

It also means that if you don't have a Google-certified device, or you want to use an Android app on a device it's not built for, there are routes to accessing apps if they are not available on Google Play.

That side of things isn't changing, you'll still be able to do this, but how Google is handling some apps is changing. According to Artem Russakovskii who runs APKMirror (via 9to5Google), Google has stopped producing "fat APKs" and is instead only making app bundles available.

A fat APK contains all the information for all versions of an app, making it really easy to install. You just download it on your device and run it like an executable file on Windows. The app installs and away you go. The downside of a fat APK is that it potentially contains a lot of data your device doesn't need, which just takes up storage space.

Google introduced a new method for app distribution when it announced Android App Bundles. This moved that APK generation over to Google Play, so when you download an app, you get the version you need for your device. This is where the change is happening, as Google was also offering the fat APK, which is what sites like APKMirror would then offer, so you could easily install the app.

Now those fat APKs aren't available and Google only seems to be offering App Bundles, it means you'll need a separate installer to use them. That's not the end of the world, it just makes a previously easy process a little more complicated, but separate software, such as the APKMirror installer, can still take the App Bundle and get it installed on your device.

For those less inclined to tinker and who only ever install apps from Google Play, there's no change here, everything will remain exactly as it was.

Developers also still have the option to produce a fat APK themselves for distribution, so some apps you download outside Google Play will work – but some you want to source from third-party sources, might now require an additional step to install.