.APKS File Extension

Typically, Android developers create APKS files with bundletool, an official, Google-maintained command-line utility used to build and manage Android App Bundles (.AAB files). To create an APKS file with bundletool developers use the following command:

bundletool build-apks --bundle=/path/to/app.aab --output=/path/to/app.apks

Developers can then use the device-specific APK files that their APKS file contains to test their app across a variety of Android devices (before uploading the finished app to Google Play). To use bundletool to install an app from an APKS file to a connected device, developers can enter:

bundletool install-apks --apks=app.apks

However, some non-Google apps also create APKS files. For example, the Android app modification tool Lucky Patcher sometimes saves exported and shared apps as APKS files (if the app was installed from an APKS file).

NOTE: Android Studio and Google Play use bundletool to create and manage APKS files.

You can use bundletool to extract, install, and manage the APK files that an APKS file contains. Other tools that allow Android users to install an app from an APKS file include:

• Andatsoft My APK
• Lucky Patcher

Additionally, if you want to extract the files an APKS file contains, you can do so by renaming the file to use the .ZIP extension and opening it as you would any ZIP file.