Flutter now sets default `abiFilters` in Android builds

Starting in Flutter 3.35, the Flutter Gradle Plugin automatically sets abiFilters for Android builds to prevent the inclusion of unsupported architectures in release APKs. This change can break custom abiFilters specified in your app's build.gradle file.

This change was introduced to solve an issue where third-party dependencies with x86 native libraries would cause Google Play to incorrectly identify Flutter apps as supporting x86 devices. When users with x86 devices installed these apps, they would crash at runtime because Flutter's native libraries aren't available for x86.

The Flutter Gradle Plugin now automatically configures abiFilters to include only the architectures that Flutter supports. This prevents Google Play from making apps available to incompatible devices.

The Flutter Gradle Plugin now programmatically sets abiFilters for non-debuggable builds when the --splits-per-abi option is not enabled by default to:

• armeabi-v7a
• arm64-v8a
• x86_64

Because this automatic configuration happens before your build.gradle files are processed, it might break custom abiFilters settings that depend on the set being empty.

If your app doesn't customize abiFilters, no changes are required.

If your app needs to customize which architectures are included, you have several options:

If you want to control architecture inclusion, use Flutter's built-in --splits-per-abi option instead of manually configuring abiFilters:

flutter build apk --splits-per-abi

This creates separate APKs for each architecture and automatically disables the automatic abiFilters configuration.

If you must use a single APK with custom architecture filters, clear the automatically set filters and configure your own in your build.gradle. For example:

android {
    buildTypes {
        release {
            // Clear the automatically set filters.
            ndk.abiFilters.clear()
            // Set your custom filters.
            ndk.abiFilters.addAll(listOf("arm64-v8a"))
        }
    }
}

Landed in version: 3.35.0
In stable release: 3.35

Relevant issues:

• Issue #174004
• Issue #153476

Relevant PRs:

• PR #168293