/android-apk -- Build Native Android APKs Without Android Studio

Build minimal Android APKs using raw SDK tools (javac, d8, aapt, apksigner). No Gradle, no Android Studio, no bloat. Produces tiny APKs (~30KB) that build in <2s.

Origin

Extracted from a real session building a share-sheet APK for posting URLs to a Cloudflare Access-protected API. (Mar 2026)

When to Use

• Android share sheet integration (ACTION_SEND intent)
• Lightweight companion APKs for web tools
• Any Android app that just needs to POST data to an API
• When you need an APK and don't want 500MB of Gradle overhead

Prerequisites

Android SDK command-line tools installed: