diff --git a/meta-oe/classes/image_types_sparse.bbclass b/meta-oe/classes/image_types_sparse.bbclass
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1459f800a5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meta-oe/classes/image_types_sparse.bbclass
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+inherit image_types
+
+CONVERSIONTYPES += "sparse"
+CONVERSION_CMD_sparse() {
+    in="${IMAGE_NAME}${IMAGE_NAME_SUFFIX}.${type}"
+    out="${IMAGE_NAME}${IMAGE_NAME_SUFFIX}.${type}.sparse"
+    case "${type}" in
+        ext*)
+            ext2simg "$in" "$out"
+            ;;
+        *)
+            img2simg "$in" "$out"
+            ;;
+    esac
+}
+CONVERSION_DEPENDS_sparse = "android-tools-native"