After you press the “Install” button, the process will start, and you’re done. This is where you can check what the applications needs, like access to the contacts list or the storage.Īt the button of the page you get the “Cancel” and “Install” buttons. You’ll get a prompt that tells you’re about to install an app and the type of access that it requires. Some browsers offer users a button to open the file once it’s downloaded and you can press that one. Just click on the download button and your Internet browser will automatically get the file and place it in the Downloads folder. Softpedia offers a wide selection of applications that range from simple ones to complex games.

Once you know what application you need, just download it on your device. If you don’t want to go looking for it, you can just try to install an APK, and the OS will tell you where to go to enable the option, but we’ll get to that in just a moment. To enable it, you just have to turn it on. Users should also be able to see something written underneath, such as “Allow installation of apps from sources other than the Play Store.”ĭepending on the version of your Android OS and the makers of the device, the location of the option can be in various places. The option is called “Unknown sources” in the Android OS, and it’s just a simple toggle. It’s a safeguard measure, but it’s not hidden away, and users don’t need to have elevated privileges to disable it. Allowing Android to install third-party appsīefore trying to install applications on your mobile device, you need to know that, by default, the Android OS won’t let you do it. All you need is an Android device and the willingness to install apps. There are lots of reasons why you might want to use an APK instead of the regular Google Play store, but in this article we’ll focus on how to install them. For example, you can’t delete the launcher or the dialer app, but they also come in the form of APK files and can be upgraded. It’s important to know that any application that you have on your phone or tablet is stored as an APK file, even the ones that are part of the operating system.

If anything, installing apps from the APK files can be done with ease and takes only a few steps. Some users might think that installing applications on their own and not through the Google Play Store is a complicated process, but that’s actually not true. Anyone can do it, and the entire process is very straightforward and painless. The ability to install applications without the help of the official Google Play Store is one of the many strengths of the Android OS.

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