The use of smart television continues to increase. For this reason, software and hardware manufacturers are trying to improve the user experience by adding new features. Lastly, Google has made a significant change to its smart TV operating system. The company has announced that starting in May 2023, Android TV and Google TV will require apps to be bundled in the Android App Bundle (AAB) format instead of the existing APK format.

Google TV and Android TV will require app bundles from 2023

Google says this policy on Android phones has a number of benefits. According to the US tech giant, users are less likely to delete AAB programs because they allow apps to be archived. Many people may prefer to delete their apps to save space, but the archiving option eliminates this need as it saves 60% of space. AAB apps are also smaller, faster, more current, and superior to their predecessors. Of course, with this move, the company wants to eliminate the alternatives of its own app store.

All the advantages offered by the application packages are as follows:

  • App bundles save 20% more space than APKs by optimizing’s for each device.
  • App bundles allow users to archive (which reclaims 60% of app storage), so they can keep these and more apps on their TV despite limited storage.
  • App bundles are helpful for all Google Play-enabled Android devices, including TVs, phones, tablets, watches, and cars.
  • The Play Store automatically serves an optimized app for each device configuration from a single artefact containing all of your app’s code and resources.

Josh Wentz of Google TV Product Management said about the app bundles decision: “Over the past few decades, TV has transformed from linear channel surfing to on-demand content with multi-app experiences. Today, over 10,000 apps are available on Android TV OS. Less storage results in users having to uninstall apps, hindering their overall TV experience. To help with this problem and others, Android introduced App Bundles in Nov 2020. And now, Google TV and Android TV will be requiring Android App Bundles that are archivable starting in May 2023 to save storage for users.”

(Source)

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