When a user installs an app from Google Play, the app is downloaded in the form of an APK file. This file contains everything needed to install and run the app on the user’s device. Prior to the introduction of Android Studio 3.2, the developer would generate one or more APK files using Android Studio and upload them to Google Play. In order to support multiple device types, screen sizes and locales this would require either the creation and upload of multiple APK files customized for each target device and locale, or the generation of a large universal APK containing all of the different configuration resources and platform binaries within a single package.
Creating multiple APK files involved a significant amount of work that had to be repeated each time the app needed to be updated imposing a considerable time overhead to the app release process.
The universal APK option, while less of a burden to the developer, caused an entirely unexpected...
