this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 17 points 2 weeks ago

Google has been pushing developers toward using app bundles instead of APKs. The actual APK you get is specific to your hardware.

The easiest way to get an APK is to ask the developer. If that's not an option, you can consult a search engineβ€”there are plenty of sites that distribute them (though there's no way of verifying their integrity).

Do you have permission to upload the APK? What app is it?

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 2 weeks ago

You should probably check if it's already up on APKmirror. It likely is.

[–] url@feddit.fr 12 points 2 weeks ago

You can use something like this to extract apks https://github.com/AbdurazaaqMohammed/APKExtractor

[–] hummingbird@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

There are tons of tools which can extract the installed apks from your device. Neobackup and totalcommander for example.

[–] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 week ago

I just used Swift Backup with Shizuku to move an app from my old phone to the new one. It had an apk, but had some other files with it too. I don't know enough about it to know whether the app can be used without those files, or if they're linked to me at all, but the app works on the new phone :)

[–] lucg@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

"Aurora store" is a client for the Google Play servers that lets you download the apk to a directory

Edit: I seem to be wrong, it gets into a cache directory for installation but you can't seem to choose where that is

[–] MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Okay, I downloaded the Aurora Store but can't find this option.

[–] antrosapien@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I don't think it got that option to save APK in some folder. Couldn't find it either

[–] lucg@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Sorry, also at @MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world, I was mistaken indeed. The option I was thinking of is called "manual download" but, when opening that dialog, the only buttons are cancel and install.

I'm pretty sure I've done this though, but probably by pressing install (either there or in the main UI) and looking for the apk in Aurora's cache folder