How do I build an apk for an Avalonia android app?

Question

I'm trying to build an Android app with Avalonia (using Visual Studio 2022 Community on Windows). How do I make a .apk file? Building the solution results in the following files created in the bin\Release\net7.0-android\:

MyApp.Android.dll
MyApp.Android.pdb
MyApp.Android.runtimeconfig.json
MyApp.Android.xml
MyApp.dll
MyApp.pdb

... and no APK anywhere. I have tried reading the manual but it appears to only explain debugging on an USB-attached and doesn't mention building an installable package.

Answer 1

In Visual Studio, right click on the Android project in the Solution Explorer and go to Properties, then to Android -> Options and ensure the Android package format is set to "apk".

Next, build the Android-project with the Release configuration.

Then right click on the Android-Project and click Archive... - this will create an APK. Click View Archives... to see previously created apk bundles.

Similar to how it's done in MAUI