android - Difference between app-debug.apk and app-debug-unaligned.apk

Question

In android studio with build variant set to "debug" mode, I found two outputs of apk

• app-debug.apk
• app-debug-unaligned.apk

What is the differences between those files?

Answer 1

The unaligned apk is just an intermediate apk. First, the unaligned apk is generated. Then, the unaligned apk gets aligned and produces the aligned apk which is the app-debug.apk. You can read more about it over here.