How Unity builds Android applications

Unity uses Gradle to build Android applications so it is useful to understand the build process and how Unity interacts with Gradle. Gradle lets you use Player Settings and other Unity windows to configure most aspects of the final build, however for more control, you must overwrite manifest and template files, or export your project and edit it in Android Studio.

The build process

To build Android applications:

1. Unity collects project resources, code libraries, plug-ins, Gradle templates, and manifest templates from your Unity project and uses them to create a valid Gradle project.
2. Unity adds and updates values inside Gradle templates and manifest files based on the Unity project’s Player Settings and Build Settings.
3. If you chose to export the project and not build it, Unity places C++ source files produced from your C# scripts into the Gradle project. Otherwise, if you chose to build the project, Unity places the il2cpp.so library into the Gradle project.
4. Unity runs Gradle to build the application from the Gradle project. Gradle merges the library manifest, launcher manifest, and plug-in manifests into one Android Manifest file.