diff --git a/apex/builder.go b/apex/builder.go
index e59dc96e3..b382a536e 100644
--- a/apex/builder.go
+++ b/apex/builder.go
@@ -518,8 +518,7 @@ func (a *apexBundle) buildUnflattenedApex(ctx android.ModuleContext) {
 	prebuiltSdkToolsBinDir := filepath.Join("prebuilts", "sdk", "tools", runtime.GOOS, "bin")
 
 	// Figure out if need to compress apex.
-	compressionEnabled := ctx.Config().CompressedApex() && proptools.BoolDefault(a.properties.Compressible, false) && !a.testApex
-
+	compressionEnabled := ctx.Config().CompressedApex() && proptools.BoolDefault(a.properties.Compressible, false) && !a.testApex && !ctx.Config().UnbundledBuildApps()
 	if apexType == imageApex {
 		////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 		// Step 2: create canned_fs_config which encodes filemode,uid,gid of each files