Why do we need more than one manifest for android project?

Question

i have imported someone elses project and i see 3 manifests files . one for main,one for test and another one in the root folder .

what is the advantage of having more than one manifest ? how do the project built with more than one for example if i set activity as single task in one file and single top on another ?

if someone can explain how does it works and what would be the right way to handle this .

Answer 1

You usually would require more than one manifest file when you have more than one build type or product flavors.

Gradle merges all manifest files into a single manifest file. The merging priority is

• Product flavors and build types specific manifest files.
• Main manifest file for the application.
• Library manifest files.

Imagine the case where you have a free version and a paid version of your app. The root manifest file will have the segments shared by both the versions. The paid version would have the part specific for it, like checking license.