[Q] Download free Apps from Google Play without Market - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Yep, you've read that right: I'm looking for a way to download some FREE apps from google play without having the market installed. To make a long story short: I don't like the market to know what my phone runs. So is there any software I could download there free app "My Callya" with? Have looked everywhere on the interwebs, but can't find it. I'd be more than happy about a download link to it though.

Why not use titanium backup, and just remove the market links after downloading it.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510e using XDA

It's not about the links on my phone, but some issue I generally have about privacy when hearing the word "Google". Therefore, how to get the goodies without using the market?

If you're not going to use Google Play, you'll have to use another market. I came across http://androidpit.com which might be useful to you. It also allows you to buy apps with paypal.

But isn't there a way to obtain the free APKs without such software?

Not from Google Play. It requires a unique device ID that you can only obtain by actually registering your device with Google.
And once you've done that you might as well just get it from Play.

Fair. Any other recommendable place where the device ID is not required?

No matter what you're using, you'll have to have a secondary market of some sort. There's also the Amazon Appstore which you can install from Amazon.com and it doesn't use your device ID, just your Amazon account. Really, you just have to choose a place you trust since you seem to be really concerned with privacy and who stores data about what apps you have.

You can try Amazon, but you won't find all of the apps that are available in the Play Store. You can always search for the apks online, since people tend to post them for others that cannot access them for whatever reason. If you're interested in purchasing apps, Amazon would be the way to go, or most devs have a way to purchase from their website. Installing the Amazon Appstore will help you with a lot of apps that you'd like to download, plus they feature one paid app for free every day. If you "purchase" it while it's free, it will be tied to your Amazon account so that you can install it on another device as well or reinstall if you decide to uninstall it. Most of the free apps of the day are crap, but every now and then you'll find a good one.
I'll see if I can find the app you're asking for on the Market, download it, and post the apk for you.
Edit: Couldn't find the app on Google Play. I must not be able to access it due to screen resolution or OS version or something. If you know that it's in the Play Store because you've seen it from the website, maybe someone else can access it for you. If not, check the Market website and make sure it's still published and hasn't changed names or something.

Ohhh, and I think I read about an extension for Chrome that allows you to directly download apks from the Play Store website. I don't know if your Google account has to be registered to a phone or not.

kind of late but if anyone else is looking for a solution, this might work as stated above.
it basically turns the google play store links into downloadable .apk links
http://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/
To get started, enter the web URL of any app listed on the Google Play store and click the “Generated Download Link” button. The APK download app will fetch the APK file from the Google Play store and will host it on its own servers from where you downlaod the file.
Since the APK files are directly fetched from the Google Play Store, it’s unlikely that the Android App will be infected with any malware. Also, to prevent app piracy, the APK downloader only lets you download free apps and games from the Google Play store, not the paid ones.

SecUpwN said:
But isn't there a way to obtain the free APKs without such software?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the way i follow if i don't get a apk is just Google '<app name> <version>' and download.though a few times i faced spam

dmxoneIuv said:
kind of late but if anyone else is looking for a solution, this might work as stated above.
it basically turns the google play store links into downloadable .apk links
http://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. Does this thing also load PRO-apps for free?

Related

[Q] how to fool an application

is it possible to make an application think it is installed from market?
does market app (now play store) keep record of applications installed from market but not directly from an apk or other sources? can that list be manipulated?
No it checks your google account to see if you made the purchase before. All that is done securely. The market will see it as purchased sometimes, but when trying to download google recognizes that you havent really purchased and gives an error. I sort of kno why you asked and you can google how to get what you want. No talk of that here though !
Sent from my XT862 using Tapatalk
Dri94 said:
No it checks your google account to see if you made the purchase before. All that is done securely. The market will see it as purchased sometimes, but when trying to download google recognizes that you havent really purchased and gives an error. I sort of kno why you asked and you can google how to get what you want. No talk of that here though !
Sent from my XT862 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i asked it here to make sure nothing illegal is happening
because xplore (it's free!) suggests you to download it from market if you install the apk
but what about this: you install an app from market, you wipe everything, you install the backup of your (personal!) apk, now if it checks your google account, there is a record of purchase, right?, but xplore realizes it's not from market, i think the way it's doing this is very cool, i want to know how to do it myself
and by the way if you google ( no matter how hard) there is no cracked version of xplore!
i'm gonna think that developers of xplore are some kind of very.... genius?!?!!
and we all know there are a lot of articles about 'how to secure your app against reverse engineering and craking' but if i was in a hurry, which one did you suggest me to read?
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions &
Read the Forum Rules Ref Posting
Moving to Q&A
loolooyyyy said:
i asked it here to make sure nothing illegal is happening
because xplore (it's free!) suggests you to download it from market if you install the apk
but what about this: you install an app from market, you wipe everything, you install the backup of your (personal!) apk, now if it checks your google account, there is a record of purchase, right?, but xplore realizes it's not from market, i think the way it's doing this is very cool, i want to know how to do it myself
and by the way if you google ( no matter how hard) there is no cracked version of xplore!
i'm gonna think that developers of xplore are some kind of very.... genius?!?!!
and we all know there are a lot of articles about 'how to secure your app against reverse engineering and craking' but if i was in a hurry, which one did you suggest me to read?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium Backup (Menu->Market Tools->Market Doctor may help.
Also, if you install an app from some 3rd party source (but don't link it to the market), you will still see it as "purchased" or "installed" if you search for it (and find it).
Theonew said:
Also, if you install an app from some 3rd party source (but don't link it to the market), you will still see it as "purchased" or "installed" if you search for it (and find it).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
true but it wont let you redownload it.
Dri94 said:
true but it wont let you redownload it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only if it is a paid app or already installed.

[Q] Download apps not from play store

Sometimes my dad grounds me from using some of my chat apps that i use to talk to all of my friends. He always checks the Google Play Store on my phone and looks under My Apps and then All so he can see if i've downloaded one of them. If i download it from the play store it will show up here, even if i've already deleted it. I used to be able to get around this by downloading the .apk file for the app from another website, and not from the play store. That way it wouldn't show up in the My Apps section. But the other day i did this and the app still showed up in the My Apps part of the play store, even though i didn't download it from there.
Does anyone know why this happened, and if there is another way to download an app so it doesn't show up after i delete it? Thanks everyone!
andrew
abarneacle43 said:
Sometimes my dad grounds me from using some of my chat apps that i use to talk to all of my friends. He always checks the Google Play Store on my phone and looks under My Apps and then All so he can see if i've downloaded one of them. If i download it from the play store it will show up here, even if i've already deleted it. I used to be able to get around this by downloading the .apk file for the app from another website, and not from the play store. That way it wouldn't show up in the My Apps section. But the other day i did this and the app still showed up in the My Apps part of the play store, even though i didn't download it from there.
Does anyone know why this happened, and if there is another way to download an app so it doesn't show up after i delete it? Thanks everyone!
andrew
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes that is because the market link is intact. You can use an app like titanium backup to remove market links easily so that they wouldn't show up on the play store app list.
Sent from my GT-S5830 using XDA
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions &
Read the Forum Rules Ref Posting
Moving to Q&A
Thanks for the response, thedisturbedone. I read somewhere that the new play store won't let you break links using titanium backup. Do you know if this is true? If not, can you please link me a page on how to do that? I really appreciate it.

[Q] Obtaining Apps from Google Play without Gapps and Device Authentification

Hello all
For security reasons I bought a new phone compatible with CM and installed CM11M12 +freecyngn +Xprivacy without the Gapps. Previously I had a Windows phone. I imagined there to be issues obtaining apps but wouldn't have guessed their extent.
There is a Windows-program that allows for fetching the .akps from the Play Store but it is required that one has authenticated a device first which requires one to have installed the Play services.
There are online tools like evozi that allow for downloading the .apks but due to lacking knowledge in how to verify that the .apks indeed haven't been manipulated I rather avoid those. I don't want to become part of a botnet or install spyware.
There's the Amazon App Store, but that requires the app to be kept installed and the user signed in, and it spies on the user, so no option either. And while Amazon already is missing quite a few apps that are available on the Play Store, it's even more the case with all the other app-stores.
F-Droid is excellent but there are non-free apps that have no FOSS-alternative.
I could imagine flashing stock again and downloading the .apks and storing them somehow on my computer before reinstalling my current system. The question: Is there any other way in obtaining the apps from the Google Play Store that I don't know?
Needless to say that if I have the choice between the convenience of apps on one hand and a system that minimizes spying on the other I choose the latter without the blink of an eye.
Thank you for your help
;__;
You could find the apks floating around but can't promise they haven't been edited. Any of the paid apps that you install will try to verify by connecting to Google play store. Any pirated apps normally include things like keyloggers and screen screen recorders. I'll be honest your will be hard pressed. But then Google doesn't really do much more then ms does
Thank you for your reply, Zelendel.
So if I buy an app in the Play Store on my device using stock ROM, flash CM without Gapps and try to install the same app it won't work because it'd try to verify the purchase and for that the installed Play Services are necessary?
Luckily the apps I'm looking for in particular are mostly free apps. Will they run without the Gapps?
soikku said:
Thank you for your reply, Zelendel.
So if I buy an app in the Play Store on my device using stock ROM, flash CM without Gapps and try to install the same app it won't work because it'd try to verify the purchase and for that the installed Play Services are necessary?
Luckily the apps I'm looking for in particular are mostly free apps. Will they run without the Gapps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As long as they are not programed to use the Google services or to call back to Google play then yes.

Getting Google Play Store on upcoming Truesmart+

Total noob here, so apologizes in advance.
I bought a Truesmart+ and anticipate that I'll need to add the Google Play store when I get it if I want to use more apps than what's in the OStore, but I want to make sure I do it right and not break my Truesmart+ in the first few days. Reading other forums, my understanding is that I just need to download the Google Play Store apk (can anyone verify this is the right one? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1996995 ) Then after downloading it, I just activate the apk from a file browser, as described in this forum: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2757648
Just want to make sure this is a universal technique and that the 6.0.5 version link above is a valid one (Truesmart+ will run Lollipop). Also, anyone know if this will void the warranty of the Truesmart+?
Thanks guys!
I would keep it clean; just wait for the Ostore update and from there you can download many app as well as Aptoide 3rd party store. Remember Omate stipulates many times that they will not install the Google Play Store by default and they will not encourage any unauthorized side loading.
OmateDev said:
I would keep it clean; just wait for the Ostore update and from there you can download many app as well as Aptoide 3rd party store. Remember Omate stipulates many times that they will not install the Google Play Store by default and they will not encourage any unauthorized side loading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't see Aptoide as one of the listed apps they provide from the OStore (list on their website). Or is their website list not complete?

Truesmart + Playstore available?

Hi, I just received my Truesmart + today, and I tried to install the google playstore and while I was able to get the APK into the watch, after it installs the playstore it fails to open.
So basically whenever I press the playstore button it'd open for half a second and the whole program just vanishes like if it got reverted back to the homescreen..... Ive also downloaded several different version of playstore and havent had any luck either...
I was wondering if you guys know if its possible to even install the google play store and get it to run on this model??
The specs of my watch are:
Android Version: 5.1
Baseband version: MOLY.WR8.W1449.MD.WG.MPV5, 2015/08/24 16:00
Kernel Version: 3.10.72
Build Number: Omate_Truesmart+_V1.1
Custom Build Version: OUI 3.0
Please help me out, I dont want to end up with a brick =(
I am curious about this too (was supposed to get mine today but the mailman messed up) Did they not include the OStore or some sort of other app program? Are any apps preloaded?
You'll also notice that you can't add a Google account within Settings-> Accounts.
The only way around that so I'm actually able to add a Google account is by sideloading "Google Services Framework" & "Google Account Manager" (in addition to "Play Services").
However, even with these installed, Play Store still doesn't work - it launches but won't connect.
Hopefully a solution is found.
Until then, I'm fine with using my LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE.
Pre-installed Apps are pretty sparse:
> Phone
> SMS
> Exchange
> File Manager
> Browser
> Calendar
> Clock
> Gallery
> Downloads
> Contacts
> Search
---------- Post added at 07:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:13 AM ----------
*UPDATE*
I've reached out to Laurent LePen (CEO of Omate) & told him the usual method of making the Play Store work (by sideloading the 3 Apps I mentioned) doesn't work on the Omate TrueSmart+. He said they're rolling out an update next week to fix that.
So hopefully, next week it'll work.
*fingers crossed*
Wow, releasing a watch without its own OStore supported seems like a big mistake. Their Facebook discussion also seems to suggest that they'll be pushing an update by the end of the year, so hopefully that holds true.
I was able to install Google search and google now launcher, but google play store won't work without "google play services" and I haven't found a version of that .apk that will not keep crashing on the Truesmart+
Since google play services keeps crashing, the play store stays on a "Checking Info" screen that keeps spinning and spinning...
Same issue here, obviously...
com.google.android.gms_8.4.89_(2428711-234)-8489234_minAPI21(armeabi-v7a)(240dpi).apk should be the correct version of Play Services, but it still crashes on me...
Does anyone have any newer versions of the Services Framework and Account Manager APK's?
Anyone, any updates?
Edit: There will be a firmware update this weekend which will pus the OStore... No Play STore, but at least it's something for now...
I just unboxed my truesmart+ today.
I think it is not useful without google service inside.
I can't sync my contact nor get my paid apps on it, it is really a bit disappointing.
KuwaK said:
I just unboxed my truesmart+ today.
I think it is not useful without google service inside.
I can't sync my contact nor get my paid apps on it, it is really a bit disappointing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There has to be a way we can get it on there...
SparkyRih said:
There has to be a way we can get it on there...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hurray~!
I rev an update today, I updated to V1.2. And the google play is inside!!!!!!!
I am now installing my APPs now.
KuwaK said:
Hurray~!
I rev an update today, I updated to V1.2. And the google play is inside!!!!!!!
I am now installing my APPs now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought they would put the OStore in the update, but this is even better!!!
Everything appears to be working great
Just curious, if Aptoide does the same thing as the Play Store, did we really need the Play Store? I'm away from my device so I can't test it, but it seems Aptoide has many of the same mainstream apps as the Play Store (Maps, YouTube, etc)
Could someone please answer my question re: Aptoide? Is this a viable alternative? (from a technical perspective, please no need to go into politics) Thanks.
proxy170 said:
Could someone please answer my question re: Aptoide? Is this a viable alternative? (from a technical perspective, please no need to go into politics) Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aptoide will work for free apps, if you install "My Paid Apps" from Aptoide you may also be able to install some of your paid apps as well. Aptoide's biggest drawbacks are much smaller number of apps, less security, sometimes apps do not get updated as often, not all paid apps will be accessible.
Another option is Amazon App Store.
proxy170 said:
Could someone please answer my question re: Aptoide? Is this a viable alternative? (from a technical perspective, please no need to go into politics) Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aptoide is a viable alternative to Google Play, but only if you are very careful and very skilled at being able to recognize and avoid trojanized versions of apps. The majority of people hosting apps there are well intentioned, I guess, but there are also a large number of maliciously modified apps to be found there, and cracked premium pay apps are included.
Using Aptoide over the Play Store, then, is not a good idea unless you are very skilled or have other means of avoiding Android malware mixed in with the many legitimate apps available there. If you get apps there that are really hosted there by their real original developers, for example, you can feel pretty secure.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
trent999 said:
Using Aptoide over the Play Store, then, is not a good idea unless you are very skilled or have other means of avoiding Android malware mixed in with the many legitimate apps available there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you both for your replies! Referencing your statement above, if I download only the apps marked with a green shield marked "trusted" should I be ok? (Do I trust the trust mark?) I'm only looking for Maps, YouTube, SWApp, Gmail, Amazon Music, Pandora.
proxy170 said:
Thank you both for your replies! Referencing your statement above, if I download only the apps marked with a green shield marked "trusted" should I be ok? (Do I trust the trust mark?) I'm only looking for Maps, YouTube, SWApp, Gmail, Amazon Music, Pandora.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can download the .apk files from the play store by using this website: http://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/.
This procedure should be safe and maleware free.
Thread cleaned.
Please keep this thread on topic, otherwise it will be permanently closed.
Cheers
Magnum_Enforcer
FSM

Categories

Resources