Non Play Store APK flavour does not install on an Android 11 device, but installs if self-compiled from source

[x86pup]

Hi! A user with a Cat S22 Flip device that runs Android 11 (API 30) and is arm64/aarch64 architecture was getting an error installing the APK from https://github.com/zood/george/releases/download/v0.65/zood-github-0.65.apk or through F-Droid from IzzyOnDroid (https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/xyz.zood.george).

I didn't get any pm logs or anything from adb from her, but I spent some time looking at the repo to see if there was something that was causing the problem. I didn't see anything, however I decided to try compiling the app for her and only made the following changes:

diff --git a/app/build.gradle b/app/build.gradle
index 5ce560b..0cb11b8 100644
--- a/app/build.gradle
+++ b/app/build.gradle
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
+apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services'
 
 android {
     buildFeatures {
@@ -24,7 +25,7 @@ android {
             }
         }
         ndk {
-            abiFilters 'x86_64', 'arm64-v8a', 'x86'
+            abiFilters 'x86_64', 'arm64-v8a', 'armeabi-v7a', 'x86'
         }
     }
     buildTypes {
@@ -47,7 +48,7 @@ android {
             }
             ndk {
                 //noinspection ChromeOsAbiSupport
-                abiFilters 'arm64-v8a'
+                abiFilters 'arm64-v8a', 'armeabi-v7a'
             }
         }
         playStore {
@@ -89,6 +90,7 @@ android {
 
 repositories {
     mavenCentral()
+    google()
 }
 
 dependencies {

I don't think most of these changes were required, but the build kept on failing due to lack of com.google.gms.google-services and Firebase config even if I was just building the GitHub release.

Regardless, to my surprise with this, the app actually installed successfully on her device and fully works (registration, location sharing with eachother, etc).

The device does not have Google Play Services so I couldn't say if installing the Play Store variant would have worked or not.

The only thing I could think of was there not being armv7 support, but the device is definitely aarch64/arm64 so it shouldn't be that. Are there any ideas?

We're using the app together now with her just using the compiled APK, but just wanted to report it since the minimum app SDK is 29 (Android 10) and the device should be arm64 and is on IzzyOnDroid. I am aware of the removal of armv7 with respect to #67 (comment) but I have no idea if me adding it back actually fixed it or not. We can't do any trial and error builds since we have a stable need for it for the time being.

[arashpayan]

@x86pup I appreciate your comprehensive investigation of the problem before reporting it. At this point, I'm as stumped as you. You mentioned that you have a need for the app to remain stable and installed right now, but when convenient could you try installing the GitHub APK and look at the pm/adb logs for any red flags?

[x86pup]

I think we can give it a try in the next couple weeks. I'll let you know.