Generate Apk file from aab file (android app bundle)

So far nobody has provided the solution to get the APK from an AAB.

This solution will generate a universal binary as an apk.

1. Add --mode=universal to your bundletool command (if you need a signed app, use the --ks parameters as required).

   bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks
       --mode=universal
   

2. MAIN STEP: Change the output file name from .apks to .zip

3. Unzip and explore

4. The file universal.apk is your app

This universal binary will likely be quite big but is a great solution for sending to the QA department or distributing the App anywhere other than the Google Play store.

By default, the IDE does not use app bundles to deploy your app to a local device for testing

Refer bundletool command

For Debug apk command,

bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks

For Release apk command,

bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks
--ks=/MyApp/keystore.jks
--ks-pass=file:/MyApp/keystore.pwd
--ks-key-alias=MyKeyAlias
--key-pass=file:/MyApp/key.pwd

Edit:

I have been using following commands while testing my release build for aab(I hope it helps others too):

1. Download bundletool jar file from Github Repository (Latest release > Assets > bundletool-all-version.jar file). Rename that file to bundletool.jar

2. Generate your aab file from Android Studio eg: myapp-release.aab

3. Run following command:

   java -jar "path/to/bundletool.jar" build-apks --bundle=myapp-release.aab --output=myapp.apks --ks="/path/to/myapp-release.keystore" --ks-pass=pass:myapp-keystore-pass --ks-key-alias=myapp-alias --key-pass=pass:myapp-alias-pass
   

4. myapp.apks file will be generated

5. Make sure your device is connected to your machine

6. Now run following command to install it on your device:

   java -jar "path/to/bundletool.jar" install-apks --apks=myapp.apks
   

Edit 2:

If you need to extract a single .apk file from the .aab file, you can add a extra param --mode=universal to the bundletool command:

bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks \
    --mode=universal \
    --ks=/MyApp/keystore.jks \
    --ks-pass=file:/MyApp/keystore.pwd \
    --ks-key-alias=MyKeyAlias \
    --key-pass=file:/MyApp/key.pwd

and execute

unzip -p /MyApp/my_app.apks universal.apk > /MyApp/my_app.apk

this will generate a single a /MyApp/my_app.apk file that can be shared an installed by any device app installer

Ok here is the complete way I had to do:

1. Download bundletool-all-0.10.3.jar from this link, download the latest version available

2. Create an app bundle using android studio and locate its path:

   In my case its E:\Projects\Android\Temp\app\build\outputs\bundle\debug\app.aab

3. Copy the bundletools jar to some location and get its path

In my case its E:\Temp\bundletool-all-0.6.0.jar

Use this command:

java -jar "BUNDLE_TOOL_JAR_PATH" build-apks --bundle="BUNDLE_PATH" --output=YOUR_OUTPUT_NAME.apks

In my case it will be

    java -jar "E:\Temp\bundletool-all-0.6.0.jar" build-apks \
        --bundle="E:\Projects\Android\Temp\app\build\outputs\bundle\debug\app.aab" \
        --output=out_bundle_archive_set.apks

4. This will create a file out_bundle_archive_set.apks , rename it to .zip out_bundle_archive_set.zip , extract this file and done You will have multiple apk files

To install directly on external device use :

java -jar "E:\Temp\bundletool-all-0.6.0.jar" install-apks --apks=out_bundle_archive_set.apks

Check this blog post for more info . also check out official site

People have already explained on how to do this with the command-line. For completion, I thought I'd also show the way to do it via the UI in Android Studio.

When you open your "Run/Debug Configurations", you can select "APK from app bundle" (instead of "Default APK").

See screenshot:

Refer Geek Dashboard for more info.

For those who are looking to generate a single universal APK file from your Android App Bundle, you must use --universal flag while running the build-apks command.

java -jar bundletool.jar build-apks --bundle=your_app.aab --output=your_app.apks --mode=universal

Where bundletool.jar is the bundletool jar file you downloaded here

your_app.aab is the Android App Bundle of your App

your_app.apks is the output APKs Archive File that will be generated once you run the command.

While running the above command make sure you place bundletool.jar and your AAB file in the same folder.

Now, you need to change the your_app.apks file format to your_app.zip and extract it to find the universal.apk file

Note: Use –overwrite flag to overwrite the APKs file if there is already one with the same name. Otherwise, bundletool command will throw you a fatal error.

on mac it can be easily done using homebrew

brew install bundletool

you can use the command below to generate apks

bundletool build-apks --bundle=aab_path.aab --output=release.apks

above command generates apks file which can later be extracted to give various apk files. To see all generated files change the extension from .apks to .zip and just extract the files.

then you can install apk using this command on connected device

bundletool install-apks --apks=release.apks

There's a tool called bundletool, which can create APK's out of your AAB file:

Find details about this tool here: https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/bundletool

But here some highlights taken from that site:

Building APKs

When bundletool generates APKs from your app bundle, it includes them in a container called an APK set archive, which uses the .apks file extension. To generate an APK set for all device configurations your app supports from your app bundle, use the bundletool build-apks command, as shown below:

bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks

Note that the command above creates an APK set of unsigned APKs. If you want to deploy the APKs to a device, you need to also include your app’s signing information, as shown in the command below.

bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks
  --ks=/MyApp/keystore.jks
  --ks-pass=file:/MyApp/keystore.pwd
  --ks-key-alias=MyKeyAlias
  --key-pass=file:/MyApp/key.pwd

Installing APKs

bundletool install-apks --apks=/MyApp/my_app.apks

Generate a device-specific set of APKs

bundletool build-apks --connected-device --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks

I have developed a windows tool for converting .aab files to .apk in Python.

It supports creating both debug and signed apk which can be directly installed to default android device connected through USB.

It uses google’s bundle tool in the backend.

https://aabtoapkconverter.com/

Edit: The Source code is now available now on github.

This is first tool that I have developed and shared with the world. Hope it is useful. I am open to suggestions and bug reports.

Here is what i did. First thing is, i am on a Mac. So in this official guide https://reactnative.dev/docs/signed-apk-android, followed below steps.

1. Run this command sudo keytool -genkey -v -keystore my-upload-key.keystore -alias my-key-alias -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000 you can change the name of my-upload-key to your choice
2. Setup the gradle variables as per the guide
3. Also do the same as per the guide for point "Adding signing config to your app's Gradle config"
4. Now rather than continuing (which will generate an AAB file) what you can do is below.

4.1 I open the same project(android folder) in Android Studio

4.2 From the Menu Options > Build > Clean Project

4.3 Click on the Make Project button and let it complete (if you can run using npm run android, then this should finish without any issues) Make Project

4.4 Once done, click on Menu options > Build > Generate Signed Bundle/APK... Generate Signed Bundle/APK...

4.5 In the next Screen Choose APK radio button and Click Next Choose APK option

4.6 In the next screen, Browse to the keystore file which you generated as the first step, its password, alias name and its password, click Next. Final Step

Wait for it to complete. You may see some errors but more importantly in the end you should get a popup in the right bottom corner saying "Locate". Click on that and you will find your app-release.apk.

Good luck

I think this method much more efficient