There are a bunch of sites like apkmirror etc. that do that but eventually the large ones started enshittifying their service. On apkmirror for example you used to be able to just download the apk’s, now they’ve invented a special “format” that can only be installed through their app. Needless to say that was the end of that, I’m not keen on giving install capability to any more apps than I absolutely have to. (Zero is the ideal answer in case you’re wondering, but in practice it’s usually one, the system file manager. Any other app can download apk’s to /Downloads or go fuck itself.)
now they’ve invented a special “format” that only can only be installed through their app
If I’m not mistaken, that’s the .apkm bundles right? That’s not their own format but another one Google invented to be able to dynamically install only the relevant parts of an app for a specific device type, locale, etc.
Android can’t install this on it’s own (I wonder who’s fault that is 🙄) but it can be installed via adb or through special installer apps like the Play Store, Aurora or I’m assuming the APKMirror app
There are a bunch of sites like apkmirror etc. that do that but eventually the large ones started enshittifying their service. On apkmirror for example you used to be able to just download the apk’s, now they’ve invented a special “format” that can only be installed through their app. Needless to say that was the end of that, I’m not keen on giving install capability to any more apps than I absolutely have to. (Zero is the ideal answer in case you’re wondering, but in practice it’s usually one, the system file manager. Any other app can download apk’s to /Downloads or go fuck itself.)
If I’m not mistaken, that’s the .apkm bundles right? That’s not their own format but another one Google invented to be able to dynamically install only the relevant parts of an app for a specific device type, locale, etc.
Android can’t install this on it’s own (I wonder who’s fault that is 🙄) but it can be installed via adb or through special installer apps like the Play Store, Aurora or I’m assuming the APKMirror app
For info - there is an alternative to APKMirror’s app On F-Droid. Still not ideal, but better than their proprietary nonsense.
https://f-droid.org/packages/app.pwhs.universalinstaller/