Many Android projects start by putting Dev / QA / Prod inside buildTypes. It works at first… but as the app grows, the build setup becomes confusing and hard to scale.
A clean Gradle architecture separates responsibilities clearly:
🔹 BuildTypes → How the app is built
Used for technical build behavior like:
- Debuggable vs optimized builds
- Code shrinking (R8)
- Resource shrinking
- Signing configs
🔹 ProductFlavors → What version of the app you’re building
Used for:
- Dev / QA / Prod environments
- Free vs Paid tiers
- Client or region-specific builds
🔹 FlavorDimensions → How variations scale
When your app varies across multiple axes (like tier and environment), dimensions help Gradle generate structured combinations without chaos.
This separation keeps your build system predictable, maintainable, and scalable — especially in production apps with multiple environments and feature tiers.
👉 I’ve shared a full architect-level guide with real Gradle examples and best practices here:
Read the complete article on Medium:
https://medium.com/@vaibhav.shakya786/stop-misusing-buildtypes-the-right-way-to-use-flavors-dimensions-in-android-b0d82bd7e4b1
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