Android APK vs test APK?

Question

I see Android creates both a "normal" and an androidTest APK inside the outputs folder?

ie

• app-dev-debug.apk
• app-dev-debug-androidTest.apk

Do I need to install both of these if I want to run tests on the device via the debug bridge for example?

Thanks

Answer 1

app-dev-debug is your app, the debug build. app-dev-debug-androidTest is the apk for your android instrumentation tests. They have to run on an Android device, so they need to be in an apk.

Answer 2

Just for clarification:

You can install app-dev-debug.apk on the device and start using it as an application, no need to install app-dev-debug-androidTest.apk .

On the other side, you can install app-dev-debug-androidTest.apk , but you cannot use it as an application. It only contains information about android instrumentation tests. And to run this tests, you also need to install app-dev-debug.apk . And then you can run them for example with ADB .