Version: 2021.2
Building and delivering for Android
Override the Android App Manifest

Gradle templates

Gradle templates configure how to build an Android application using GradleAn Android build system that automates several build processes. This automation means that many common build errors are less likely to occur. More info
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. Each Gradle template represents a single Gradle project. Gradle projects can include, and depend on, other Gradle projects.

Gradle template files

A Gradle template consists of the following files:

File Location Contains
baseProjectTemplate.gradle In the exported project, root/build.gradle folder Configuration information that affects all modules in the final Gradle project. It specifies which Android Gradle Plugin version to use and locations of java plugins. The locations are a combination of online repositories and java plugins inside of this project.
launcherTemplate.gradle_ In the exported project, root/launcher/build.gradle folder Instructions on how to build the Android application. This includes bundling, signing, and whether to split the apkThe Android Package format output by Unity. An APK is automatically deployed to your device when you select File > Build & Run. More info
See in Glossary
. It depends on the unityLibrary project and outputs either an .apk file or an app bundle.
mainTemplate.gradle In the exported project, root/unityLibrary/build.gradle folder Instructions on how to build Unity as a Library. This outputs an .aar file. You can override the Unity template with a custom template in the Unity Editor. See the Providing a custom Gradle build template section on this page for more details.
libTemplate.gradle Varies If an Android Library Project plug-inA set of code created outside of Unity that creates functionality in Unity. There are two kinds of plug-ins you can use in Unity: Managed plug-ins (managed .NET assemblies created with tools like Visual Studio) and Native plug-ins (platform-specific native code libraries). More info
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doesn’t include a build.gradle file, Unity uses the libTemplate.gradle file as a template to generate one. After Unity generates the build.gradle file, or if one already exists in the plug-in’s directory, Unity copies the plug-in into the Gradle project.

Using a custom Gradle template

There are two .gradle files that control the Gradle build process for the unityLibrary module:

  • build.gradle: Specifies build instructions.
  • settings.gradle: Contains the names of modules that the Gradle build system should include when it builds the project.project components that the instructions in the build.gradle file use in the build process.

build.gradle

The build.gradle file contains template variables that specify build instructions.

By default, Unity uses the mainTemplate.gradle file from the Unity install directory to create the build.gradle file for the unityLibrary module. To create your own mainTemplate.gradle file:

  1. Open the Project Settings window (menu: Edit > Project Settings).
  2. Select the Player tab then open Android Player Settings:
  3. In the Publishing Settings section, enable Custom Main Gradle Template. This creates a Gradle template file called mainTemplate.gradle and displays the path to the file. Unity now uses this mainTemplate.gradle file to create the build.gradle file. For a list of template variables and a description of what each does, see Template variables.

Template variables

The mainTemplate.gradle file can contain the following variables:

Variable Description
DEPS The list of project dependenciesIn the context of the Package Manager, a dependency is a specific package version (expressed in the form package_name@package_version) that a project or another package requires in order to work. Projects and packages use the dependencies attribute in their manifests to define the set of packages they require. For projects, these are considered direct dependencies; for packages, these are indirect, or transitive, dependencies. More info
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. This is the list of libraries that the project uses.
APIVERSION The API version to build for. Unity sets the and TARGETSDKVERSION to the same value (Target API Level in the Android Player Settings).
MINSDKVERSION The minimum API version that supports the application.
BUILDTOOLS The SDK build tools to use.
TARGETSDKVERSION The API version to target. Unity sets the and APIVERSION to the same value (Target API Level in the Android Player Settings).
APPLICATIONID Android Application ID. For example, com.mycompany.myapp.
MINIFY_DEBUG Indicates whether to minify debug builds.
PROGUARD_DEBUG Indicates whether to use ProGuard for minification in debug builds.
MINIFY_RELEASE Indicates whether to minify release builds.
PROGUARD_RELEASE Indicates whether to use ProGuard for minification in release builds.
USER_PROGUARD Specifies a custom ProGuard file to use for minification.
SIGN Complete the signingConfigs section if this build is signed.
SIGNCONFIG Indicates whether the build is signed. If this property is set to signingConfig.release, the build is signed.
DIR_GRADLEPROJECT The directory where Unity creates the Gradle project.
DIR_UNITYPROJECT The directory of your Unity project.

settings.gradle

The settings.gradle file contains project components used in the build process.

By default, Unity uses the settingsTemplate.gradle file from the Unity install directory to create the settings.gradle file for your build. To create your own settingsTemplate.gradle file, create a settingsTemplate.gradle file in your project’s Assets/Plugins/Android/ folder. This overrides the default template.

If you create a custom settings.gradle file, be aware of the following:

  • Unity creates the launcher and unityLibrary components by default and you must include them in your settingsTemplate.gradle file. To do this, add include ':launcher', ':unityLibrary' as an entry to your settingsTemplate.gradle.
  • If you use Android Library plug-ins, Unity includes them in the final settings.gradle file by replacing the **INCLUDES** entry. This means you must add **INCLUDES** as an entry to your settingsTemplate.gradle.

Modifying the exported Gradle project using C#

To modify the Gradle project after Unity assembles it, create a class that inherits from IPostGenerateGradleAndroidProject and override the OnPostGenerateGradleAndroidProject function. This function receives the path to the unityLibrary module as a parameter and you can use it to reach the application’s manifest and resources through C# scripting.

Warning: Unity now uses an incremental build pipeline which means Unity reuses the same Gradle project for consecutive builds. This means that any modifications you do using this API accumulate since Unity no longer creates a new Gradle project for every build. For example, if you use this API to add an additional file to the Gradle project, the first build works as expected, but during the second build the file already exists. A second example is if you use this API to add a permission to a particular file. Each successive build adds another entry for the permission. It is crucial to make sure that modifications you want to make aren’t already present in the build.

Building and delivering for Android
Override the Android App Manifest