For almost every Android smartphone owner, Google Play Store is the fastest and easiest way to get his or her favorite apps. It is easy to use and that is what makes it the most sought after application for app downloading. But there could be several reasons when people wish to rely on a different option to download app other than Google Play Store. These reasons could be unavailability of app on Store and many others. If you’ve got the APK, you can choose to install the app directly. Let’s know how.
Set up your device
Security is one of the prime concerns that users should take care of while opting for this option. The methods to modify security measures may vary from phone to phone.
- Navigate to Settings
- Now move to Security -> lock screen or on other devices this might just be known as Security
- Tick “Allow installation from unknown sources”
When you check this, you can choose to install APK files downloaded from outside the Google Play. Sometimes, if you’re asked to permit installation of files from unknown sources while really trying to install one, a pop up will ask you if you want to allow just this installation, or to allow them by default.
Generally it’s safest to onlypermit them separately unless you’re installing a big chunk of APKs. If you are installing a whole lot at once, make sure to go back and change this setting back.
The risks
There is a valid reason why the option to download APKs from unknown source is turned off by default. According to experts, it is very harmful to download random APKs from web and install them on your device. However, the best way to deal with the situation is to provide a detailed guide to users on how they can install them without compromising on the security part.
By allowing the installation of random APKs, users generally open their doors for malware-infected or malicious apps to silently download other wicked software discreetly in the background. If you disallow by default and only allow on a case-by-case basis, this risk can be controlled a lot.
Download and install an APK
After you become aware of risk associated with APK download, it’s time to understand the process. Let’s understand it with an example. For instance, if you wish to download WhatsApp, you can choose to download it from its direct download page and install on your device. For this, you can either visit the site on your desktop and then transfer the file on your phone or directly open the site on your mobile browser and download the application.
After downloading, you can check out your Downloads in the app drawer and choose the downloaded APK file. Clicking on that will being the installation process, and if needed, will ask you to allow the app permissions to continue.
There are several apps that can’t be downloaded directly from the companies that prepare them, however. In this case, users can try one of the more trusted app sourcessuch asAPKMirror. From there they can download manually evaluated apps that use the same digital signatures as the apps on Google Play.
