What you need to know Google seems to want to move away from Android app formatted as APKs in the Play Store. It's now started mandating that new apps entering the store from August should use its new AAB format. The move is likely to harm third-party app stores as Google remains the only store that uses the AAB format. Google this week announced that it would be mandating the adoption of the Android App Bundle (AAB) over Android Packages (APKs) for new apps submitted from August 2021. The company had previously introduced the Android App Bundle as a new way of formatting apps for publication to the Play Store in 2018. It had seen adoption from developers as high-profile as Netflix and Adobe.