Android Deploy Settings

Android applications are packaged as ZIP files called Application Packages (APK), Android App Bundles (AAB), or Android Archives (AAR). You can install and run APK files on a device. You can upload AAB files to the Google Play Store.

Qt for Android has binaries for armv7a, arm64-v8a, x86, and x86-64. To support several different ABIs in your application, build an AAB that has binaries for each of the ABIs. The Google Play Store uses the AAB to generate optimized APK packages for the devices that request downloads and automatically signs them with your publisher key.

Qt Creator supports the following methods of deployment for Android applications:

• As a stand-alone, distributable application package (APK).
• As an app bundle (AAB) for distribution in the Google Play store.
• As an AAR, which fundamentally differs from the APK and AAB formats in that it is an Android library. You can use it as a dependency for an Android app module, but you cannot run it alone.

  All Qt versions do not support AABs. Qt 6.3.0 and later support multi-abi builds for applications when you build with CMake. AARs are supported from Qt 6.8.0 onwards. For more information, see Deploying an Application on Android.

To specify settings for application packages, go to Projects > Build Settings > Build Android APK and select Details.

For more information about the options that you have for running applications, see Android Run Settings.