It is not uncommon to have a cell phone or tablet that has an Android operating system these days. These mostly bring with them the Google Play online app store. But sometimes there are certain versions of the software that are not supported, or do not work well on our device. When we download the application that we will install on our computer, we realize that it has an APK extension. Don’t worry, here we will show you how to open APK files easily.
What is an APK file?
An APK extension stands for Android Application Package or an Android application package. It is a file that when executed on the Android operating system installs software. It is the analog of the .JAR file in Java, or .APPX in Windows.
It should be taken into consideration that, according to the version of the system, it may or may not be compatible with our equipment. There are times when running such extensions may result in the execution or installation of malicious software. Therefore, the ideal way to open APK files is to download the extension from an online store.
Basically, the .APK file has a lot of compressed data that when decompressed ends up creating the structure of the application. This means that it is optimized to run on Android.
The advantages of downloading this format outside Google Play is that it is useful to install applications on other versions of the operating system. Also if you need it is possible to make a copy of it in this extension. And in any case, knowing how to open APK files is useful for testing software that is not available in our country, or simply not found in the online store, such as the famous video game Fornite.
How to open APK files
From the tablet or phone
We must first connect the Android device to the PC with the USB cable. We go to the software we want to install and send it to the phone in an easily accessible place. With a file manager from the Tablet or mobile (if you do not have it you can download it from Google Play), we look for the file and install it.
In some cases we will have to enable the system to install external software. To do this we go to Settings, tap on Security, and in that submenu select the option Install applications from unknown sources. A security alert will pop up indicating that these can damage the system making us verify that we agree with the problem, we say yes and that’s it.
With an emulator for PC
There are programs on Windows, Mac or Linux that can open these files as Android emulators. Bluestack, Memu, Genymotion, among many others that make from the PC can be passed off as a version of the OS for mobile. We have to install one of them. Then we go to the application we are going to use and run it. Immediately the emulator will appear, and we will follow the installation steps with its features, as if we were installing it on the tablet or phone.
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