I take advantage of the round to fix mobiles that I am doing to explain and document many actions that friends and family usually ask me. In this case I explain how to install APK applications on Android.
I go straight to the point, if you want to know what an APK is and when you may need to install one, go to the end of the article.
In my case I will reinstall Play Store that works badly on a mobile that we will use without SIM for my father-in-law to play. I can not open it, or even factory reset and I find it much faster to install the application directly than to see what happens to the smartphone or flash it.
How to install an APK
We go to Settings> Security and we will see that there is an option that says Unknown origins. We have to activate it.

We will get a notice and ask for confirmation. We give ACCEPT. And we see that the unknown origins are activated.

The next step if we have not done so is to download the APK from a reliable site. Below we give some sources.

Once downloaded by clicking on the apk will start the installation.

I’m doing a lot of things with smartphones. Look at this repair in case the screen ever breaks.
Where to download from
The problem of installing APKs on your own without being in the Play Store is that they greatly increase the chances of carrying malicious code, to steal data, information, eternal viruses on the smartphone, etc.
It is true that in the Play Store there are also cases of corrupt applications, but it is more difficult, there are more filters to pass.
The secret of security with APKs is to download them from reliable sources. The purpose of this is not to get free payment applications. It is more if you see that they are offered distrust because it will possibly contain malware.
Some sites that until now are reliable are:
If you know any more you can leave a comment.
Always be careful what you download and install and from where. Even if it is the Play Store
I install an APK on Android and it disappears
This may be because we have activated the Play Protect which is an option of the Play Store that in addition to checking the applications of the Play Store searches among the applications of our device for viruses or something suspicious and if it finds an unknown APK or of the that you suspect can delete it from our mobile or tablet.
To deactivate Play Protect, go to the Play Store and in the Play Protect options menu.

Once inside we give the settings wheel and deactivate Analyze applications with Play Protecty now

Do you know how to cut your SIM. A step by step tutorial
What is APK file
.APK files (Android Application Package) are Android executable files, just like .exe files are from Windows. It is like a compressed package that contains all the data necessary to install itself in the operating system.
XAPK files
It is possible that what you find is an XAPK. As we have said the APKs are compressed files that contain everything necessary for the installation of the application, but sometimes something else is required, additional data that we may not be able to download from our device and this is packaged in an XAPK that usually contains a APK and an OBB with the necessary data to complete the application.
To install XAPK you need an installer application, for exampleAPKPure
Why to install one
We have already commented on some reasons. I list you:
- Use older, or some specific, versions of applications.
- Use of applications that are not in Play Sotre
- Try to repair a smartphone
But there are many more. Everyone has their own needs and is in certain circumstances. So I don’t think WHY is important.
How to extract APK file from phone
What we intend here is to do the opposite. Get apk of applications that you already have installed. We like an application and we want to have a backup of it, either because we know that this version works stable and we do not know if when they update it will continue to work, either because we see that there are going to be changes that we do not like, or for the reason to be.
For this there are different applications. a simple to use and it is not necessary to be root or anything is
Keep in mind that these apps usually download the applications but not the accounts, settings or data you have in them.
With all this we have enough information to get an idea of what the APKs are and what we can do with them.