In recent years, Google has been working to make Android apps smaller. As a result of that change, the process of installing (sideloading) Android APKs outside the Play Store might have an additional step.
Google announced the Android App Bundle (AAB) at I/O 2018 and made it the default format for new applications in 2021. Developers build their apps as these bundles, which contain the various files for diverse screen sizes, languages, CPU architectures, and versions of Android. Rather than downloading the full bundles, Google Play only downloads the portions it needs for apps to run at their best on a particular device, conserving storage space. Most importantly, Google Play handles all of this automatically once the AAB has been uploaded.
While most apps were delivered to devices in an optimized way, Google Play was also capable of creating full-size all-inclusive APKs from AAB files. These files were convenient for sharing apps/updates with others, both…
Source 9to5google.com