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Google first introduced app bundles a few years back, allowing developers to distribute their software by splitting up the individual components of their apps, and then having the Play Store only send users those parts that their specific phones or tablets actually need. The feature has managed to drastically reduce download sizes, and now Google is about to require developers to support app bundles for newly-published applications.

Google introduced a new way to distribute Android apps in 2018, called app bundles. While regular apps contain resources for every imaginable screen size and architecture, app bundles only include the components that your specific device needs, organized into split APKs. While app bundles help save storage space and data usage, they aren't one-size-fits-all APK files — the app bundle that Google Play saves to your device only has the components for your specific architecture/screen size.

Google's big announcement for the Game Developer Conference (GDC) isn't coming until tomorrow, but it isn't all the company has planned. Google today announced a series of changes coming to the Play Store, primarily focused on game development, but also plenty of general-purpose features for developers.