The below article not only talks about security, but also why some common tasks may not be possible anymore, such as sending an end user a "test" version of your app to see if it fixes an issue:
"And then there’s rapid-fire testing. Users email developers all the time about issues in their apps. Sometimes those issues are simple fixes: reproduce the issue, find the problem, fix it, and upload a new version. But sometimes they aren’t. Sometimes developers can’t reproduce an issue. They can fix what they think is the problem, but then the user has to test it. Now assume that user installed the app through Google Play.
With the APK model, a developer can change some code, build and sign a new APK, and send it off to the user for testing. Since the signature of the test APK matches the one the user has installed, it’s a simple process to update, test, and report back. With App Bundles, this falls apart. Since Google signs the APK the user originally installed, it won’t match the signature of the APK the developer sends. If this app is published after the App Bundles deadline, the developer won’t even have access to the key Google uses. In order to test, the user would have to uninstall the current app before installing the test version.
There are a bunch of problems here. First, there’s inconvenience, both on the developer and user side. Having to uninstall the app just to test a fix isn’t fun. And what if the problem goes away? Was it the changes the developer made, or was it because the user effectively cleared the app’s data? The Play Store does have Internal Testing, which is supposed to let developers do rapid-fire builds and distribution, but it requires the user to uninstall the release version first. It doesn’t really fix anything."
www.xda-developers.com
"And then there’s rapid-fire testing. Users email developers all the time about issues in their apps. Sometimes those issues are simple fixes: reproduce the issue, find the problem, fix it, and upload a new version. But sometimes they aren’t. Sometimes developers can’t reproduce an issue. They can fix what they think is the problem, but then the user has to test it. Now assume that user installed the app through Google Play.
With the APK model, a developer can change some code, build and sign a new APK, and send it off to the user for testing. Since the signature of the test APK matches the one the user has installed, it’s a simple process to update, test, and report back. With App Bundles, this falls apart. Since Google signs the APK the user originally installed, it won’t match the signature of the APK the developer sends. If this app is published after the App Bundles deadline, the developer won’t even have access to the key Google uses. In order to test, the user would have to uninstall the current app before installing the test version.
There are a bunch of problems here. First, there’s inconvenience, both on the developer and user side. Having to uninstall the app just to test a fix isn’t fun. And what if the problem goes away? Was it the changes the developer made, or was it because the user effectively cleared the app’s data? The Play Store does have Internal Testing, which is supposed to let developers do rapid-fire builds and distribution, but it requires the user to uninstall the release version first. It doesn’t really fix anything."
Why Google Play's APK replacement is scaring some security experts
Google Play will soon force developers to upload App Bundles instead of APKs, raising uncomfortable security questions about the requirement.
www.xda-developers.com
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