The time comes when each and every one of us, sooner or later, must face the manual installation of an application downloaded from the Play Store. This allows us, among other things, to enjoy apps like GCam for our device that do not appear in the Android app market or go back to previous versions of a certain app.
Commonly, when installing apps manually, we have to work with APK and OBB file. These are the file formats you should use to install games and applications from sources outside of the Play Store. Any of the two can be downloaded and installed on our mobile, but for this, you must first know how they differ and what settings we must touch on our mobile to install APKs on Android .
Differences between APK and OBB
Usually, when an app is installed from the Play Store, it is done automatically. Users simply press “install” and wait for it to complete. However, if you want to install a modified or patched version of the app, you must use an APK file. This is the abbreviation for the English phrase “Android application package”. It is a compressed file format, which is similar to a ZIP file that is based on the JAR format and uses the .apk extension. For us to understand each other, it’s like a Windows .exe or Mac .dmg.
An OBB file is not an app as such but a part of it. It contains collections of different files such as sound, graphics, scripts that some applications require to function and are generally larger than an APK. In addition, they are also installed differently.
Install apps manually on Android
Before downloading and installing an APK file on your phone, you must alter the settings of your phone, which, for security reasons, prevents the installation of files that have been downloaded from outside an official app store.
Allow unknown sources
There are many file management applications that allow you to install APKS but before that we mustallow “install applications from unknown sources”.By default, all Android devices block the installation of games and applications from external sources and to avoid this we must access theconfigurationpanel-> Security->”Allow installation from unknown source”. Each manufacturer names it in a different way but in general the route to follow is the same.
For example, in the latest versions of Android, this option has been removed but in exchange we can grant this permission in individual applications, such as Chrome
App installation
After completing the necessary preparations, you are ready to download and install the application from a source external to the Play Store, such as Chrome. Installing an APK file is very easy because you just have to click on the download button present on the website and make sure you have enough storage space on your mobile.
A window will open on the screen indicating if you want to install the application on your mobile, accept, let the process complete and a new icon will appear in your apps drawer or home screen.
Installing OBB files
Just as easy is to apply the content of an OBB file to an app already downloaded and installed on your Android. Just extract the OBB file on your smartphone to get a folder which is usually named “ com.developer-name.androidpackage . Then cut it and paste it in the Android / OBB destination path . Wait for the process to finish and open the app or game.
It is safe?
APK files are not subject to the same security controls that Android applications hosted in the Play Store, protected by Play Protect, pass through. For this reason, it is the preferred way for cyber criminals to sneak malicious files onto our mobile if we do not have sufficient knowledge.
On the internet there are many pages dedicated to collecting safe APKs such as APK Mirror or APK Pure that are more or less secure but you can always sneak in an “infected” file that can give us more than a headache. Generally, these websites contain the original APKs of the applications that you have available on the official websites, so you can use them fairly safely, but we advise you to avoid suspicious websites of dubious origin that put the integrity of your phone at risk.
At the end of the day resorting to an APK should be a matter of a couple of times a year, and not the usual way in which you install apps on your Android .
