diff --git a/tools/aapt2/cmd/Convert.cpp b/tools/aapt2/cmd/Convert.cpp
index cf58f98..aeedf8b 100644
--- a/tools/aapt2/cmd/Convert.cpp
+++ b/tools/aapt2/cmd/Convert.cpp
@@ -395,6 +395,12 @@
                                     << output_format_.value());
     return 1;
   }
+  if (enable_sparse_encoding_) {
+    table_flattener_options_.sparse_entries = SparseEntriesMode::Enabled;
+  }
+  if (force_sparse_encoding_) {
+    table_flattener_options_.sparse_entries = SparseEntriesMode::Forced;
+  }
 
   return Convert(&context, apk.get(), writer.get(), format, table_flattener_options_,
                  xml_flattener_options_);
diff --git a/tools/aapt2/cmd/Convert.h b/tools/aapt2/cmd/Convert.h
index 2cdb0c8..6c09649 100644
--- a/tools/aapt2/cmd/Convert.h
+++ b/tools/aapt2/cmd/Convert.h
@@ -34,10 +34,18 @@
     AddOptionalFlag("--output-format", android::base::StringPrintf("Format of the output. "
             "Accepted values are '%s' and '%s'. When not set, defaults to '%s'.",
         kOutputFormatProto, kOutputFormatBinary, kOutputFormatBinary), &output_format_);
-    AddOptionalSwitch("--enable-sparse-encoding",
+    AddOptionalSwitch(
+        "--enable-sparse-encoding",
         "Enables encoding sparse entries using a binary search tree.\n"
-        "This decreases APK size at the cost of resource retrieval performance.",
-         &table_flattener_options_.use_sparse_entries);
+        "This decreases APK size at the cost of resource retrieval performance.\n"
+        "Only applies sparse encoding to Android O+ resources or all resources if minSdk of "
+        "the APK is O+",
+        &enable_sparse_encoding_);
+    AddOptionalSwitch("--force-sparse-encoding",
+                      "Enables encoding sparse entries using a binary search tree.\n"
+                      "This decreases APK size at the cost of resource retrieval performance.\n"
+                      "Applies sparse encoding to all resources regardless of minSdk.",
+                      &force_sparse_encoding_);
     AddOptionalSwitch("--keep-raw-values",
         android::base::StringPrintf("Preserve raw attribute values in xml files when using the"
             " '%s' output format", kOutputFormatBinary),
@@ -56,6 +64,8 @@
   std::string output_path_;
   std::optional<std::string> output_format_;
   bool verbose_ = false;
+  bool enable_sparse_encoding_ = false;
+  bool force_sparse_encoding_ = false;
 };
 
 int Convert(IAaptContext* context, LoadedApk* input, IArchiveWriter* output_writer,
diff --git a/tools/aapt2/cmd/Link.cpp b/tools/aapt2/cmd/Link.cpp
index 74a8bbd..116dcd6 100644
--- a/tools/aapt2/cmd/Link.cpp
+++ b/tools/aapt2/cmd/Link.cpp
@@ -2419,6 +2419,9 @@
                 << "the --merge-only flag can be only used when building a static library");
     return 1;
   }
+  if (options_.use_sparse_encoding) {
+    options_.table_flattener_options.sparse_entries = SparseEntriesMode::Enabled;
+  }
 
   // The default build type.
   context.SetPackageType(PackageType::kApp);
diff --git a/tools/aapt2/cmd/Link.h b/tools/aapt2/cmd/Link.h
index a5623cb..6c8d143 100644
--- a/tools/aapt2/cmd/Link.h
+++ b/tools/aapt2/cmd/Link.h
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@
   bool no_resource_removal = false;
   bool no_xml_namespaces = false;
   bool do_not_compress_anything = false;
+  bool use_sparse_encoding = false;
   std::unordered_set<std::string> extensions_to_not_compress;
   std::optional<std::regex> regex_to_not_compress;
 
@@ -156,8 +157,8 @@
             "defaults. Use this only when building runtime resource overlay packages.",
         &options_.no_resource_removal);
     AddOptionalSwitch("--enable-sparse-encoding",
-        "This decreases APK size at the cost of resource retrieval performance.",
-        &options_.table_flattener_options.use_sparse_entries);
+                      "This decreases APK size at the cost of resource retrieval performance.",
+                      &options_.use_sparse_encoding);
     AddOptionalSwitch("-x", "Legacy flag that specifies to use the package identifier 0x01.",
         &legacy_x_flag_);
     AddOptionalSwitch("-z", "Require localization of strings marked 'suggested'.",
diff --git a/tools/aapt2/cmd/Optimize.cpp b/tools/aapt2/cmd/Optimize.cpp
index 4033983..e37c2d4 100644
--- a/tools/aapt2/cmd/Optimize.cpp
+++ b/tools/aapt2/cmd/Optimize.cpp
@@ -427,6 +427,13 @@
     return 1;
   }
 
+  if (options_.enable_sparse_encoding) {
+    options_.table_flattener_options.sparse_entries = SparseEntriesMode::Enabled;
+  }
+  if (options_.force_sparse_encoding) {
+    options_.table_flattener_options.sparse_entries = SparseEntriesMode::Forced;
+  }
+
   if (target_densities_) {
     // Parse the target screen densities.
     for (const StringPiece& config_str : util::Tokenize(target_densities_.value(), ',')) {
diff --git a/tools/aapt2/cmd/Optimize.h b/tools/aapt2/cmd/Optimize.h
index ff63e8d..10b84b0c 100644
--- a/tools/aapt2/cmd/Optimize.h
+++ b/tools/aapt2/cmd/Optimize.h
@@ -61,6 +61,12 @@
 
   // Path to the output map of original resource paths to shortened paths.
   std::optional<std::string> shortened_paths_map_path;
+
+  // Whether sparse encoding should be used for O+ resources.
+  bool enable_sparse_encoding = false;
+
+  // Whether sparse encoding should be used for all resources.
+  bool force_sparse_encoding = false;
 };
 
 class OptimizeCommand : public Command {
@@ -96,10 +102,18 @@
         "Comma separated list of artifacts to keep. If none are specified,\n"
             "all artifacts will be kept.",
         &kept_artifacts_);
-    AddOptionalSwitch("--enable-sparse-encoding",
+    AddOptionalSwitch(
+        "--enable-sparse-encoding",
         "Enables encoding sparse entries using a binary search tree.\n"
-            "This decreases APK size at the cost of resource retrieval performance.",
-        &options_.table_flattener_options.use_sparse_entries);
+        "This decreases APK size at the cost of resource retrieval performance.\n"
+        "Only applies sparse encoding to Android O+ resources or all resources if minSdk of "
+        "the APK is O+",
+        &options_.enable_sparse_encoding);
+    AddOptionalSwitch("--force-sparse-encoding",
+                      "Enables encoding sparse entries using a binary search tree.\n"
+                      "This decreases APK size at the cost of resource retrieval performance.\n"
+                      "Applies sparse encoding to all resources regardless of minSdk.",
+                      &options_.force_sparse_encoding);
     AddOptionalSwitch("--collapse-resource-names",
         "Collapses resource names to a single value in the key string pool. Resources can \n"
             "be exempted using the \"no_collapse\" directive in a file specified by "