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Download Android Apps (.APK Files) from Google Play on Computer

Published on: at 1:36 PM | Posted By:
Android Market (Now, Google Play) has plenty of Applications both Paid and Free which adds Fun and Simplicity to your Android experience. However, downloading Applications on Phone can be a real trouble, specially if you have a slow data connection.

There is no way provided by Google to download applications on the Computer. But, a simple trick can do the Job. You’ll be able to download Apps from Google Play directly to your computer and then transfer to your phone. Just follow the following steps:

You need Older Version of Google Chrome browser to do the trick. Search and install Google Chrome (17-20).

  1. Download APK Downloader using  a different browser or download manager and drag it to Chrome’s extensions page (chrome://chrome/extensions/) and it will install normally (Latest stable version is 1.2.1 which supports the new Google Play).
  2. Right click on the Google Chrome icon on your desktop and Choose Properties.
  3. Choose Shortcuts tab and add  --ignore-certificate-errors --allow-running-insecure-content at the end  of Target box and click OK/Apply. Note that you need to leave a space after chrome.exe (See Fig. Below)

Chrome ignore certificate errors

  1. Close Chrome and Restart using the shortcut at the desktop.
  2. Open the Extension’s options page and fill up all the details. You will need the Device ID app. Have a look below to find your Android device ID.
  3. Now, go to Google Play and further to the Application page of the App. you want to Download.
  4. Click the APK icon in your Address Bar to start downloading the application to your PC (See Fig. Below).

Android APK downloader

Enter email and device ID on Options page

Open dial pad, call *#*#8255#*#* ( 8255 = TALK ). If it opens "GTalk Service Monitor", find lines that begin with JID and Device ID. Your email is JID, and your device id is a string that after android- prefix

For example: if it shows android-1234567890abcdef , then your device ID is 1234567890abcdef

Do not type in random email or device ID, it won't work

Enter your email's password, then press Login. If everything is ok, now you can use APK Downloader

Please note that you can only download Free Apps using the Extension. It won’t show the download link for Paid Apps. You can find more info on how to use the Extension at the APK Downloader Extension’s Official Post.

Alternate Method

Doesn’t sounds to be a good idea to keep an older browser being used as your primary browser? Here Iron Browser comes to the rescue. All you need to do is download the older version of Iron Portable (provided below) and run it whenever you need to download any apps. We won’t recommend you to use this older version of Iron as your primary browser as it might have security loopholes.

Just follow these steps to download apps from Google Play using Iron Browser:

  1. Download the portable version of Iron Browser (v. 19.0.1100) - 32MB.Link here
  2. Use 7zip or any other extracting utility to extract the files to a separate folder.
  3. Once you have the files extracted, run IronPortable.exe
  4. In Iron, click on the Wrench icon in the top right (next to address bar) and select Tools> Extensions.
  5. You’ll be on the extensions page of Iron. Now open a new tab.
  6. Drag and drop the link APK Downloader into the extensions tab of Iron Browser (which you opened in step 4)
  7. It will show you a warning, just click on Continue.
  8. Click on add to install the extension.
  9. Once installed,you will be presented with the Extension’s options page. Make sure that you fill out the correct Google Account information associated with your android phone. Login when done.
  10. Now you can download apps from the Play Store. Just open the page of the specific app and click on the APK Downloader icon in your address bar to download. Please note that only free apps can be downloaded and that too only the ones which are listed as compatible with your phone.

1 comment On "Download Android Apps (.APK Files) from Google Play on Computer"

  1. This may prove useful especially if you have a cheap tablet, without 3G access and on which the Google Play app is not available. Got a $120 CT-704, guess I'll try making it work (it only has the possibility to add GetJAR applications by default, but since it's Android 2.1, some more should be available.
    Thanks for the tip!

    ReplyDelete

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