Question: What does AAPT (Android Asset Packaging Tool) mean? How does it work?

Can I ship the `.so` file of one application in the APK file of another application using AAPT?

Answer: 
AAPT allows you to view, create, and update ZIP-compatible archives (ZIP, JAR, and APK). It can also compile resources into binary assets. It is the base builder for Android applications.

Of course you can ship .so files from an application, but if you want to use it, you will need reverse engineering plugins and these are not very recommended because of the complexity. I don't know anyone for Android, but there are a bunch of environments plugins.

Also you can research a bit before posting,

* [AAPT usages](http://elinux.org/Android_aapt)
* [Reverse engineering for Android](https://reverseengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/4624/how-do-i-reverse-engineer-so-files-found-in-android-apks)
`aapt` is about Android **resources** like `.xml` etc

> 
> AAPT stands for Android Asset Packaging Tool. The Android Asset Packaging Tool (aapt) takes your application resource files, such as the AndroidManifest.xml file and the XML files for your Activities, and compiles them.This is a great tool which help you to view, create, and update your APKs (as well as zip and jar files). It can also compile resources into binary assets. It is the base builder for Android aplications. This tool is a piece of the SDK (and assemble framework) and permits you to see, make, and redesign Zip-perfect chronicles (zip, jolt, apk)
> 
> 
> 

You can find it

```
..\android-sdk\build-tools\<buildToolsVersion>

```

1. `aapt package`, `aapt add` - Building Android Application Bundles (APKs)
2. `aapt dump` - Dumping information from an APK file via:

* read a VersionCode

```
aapt dump badging <name>.apk

```
* Check Your Permissions

```
aapt dump permissions <name>.apk

```

Also `aapt` take care of resources in ProGuard process[[About]](https://stackoverflow.com/a/59285427/4770877)

Read more [here](https://www.anexinet.com/blog/android-what-is-aapt/), [here](https://spin.atomicobject.com/2011/08/22/building-android-application-bundles-apks-by-hand/), [here](https://crushingcode.nisrulz.com/whats-in-the-apk/)