Android Applications

Android Apps
URL	https://play.google.com/store/games[IA•Wcite•.today]
Status	Online! but Endangered
Archiving status	Upcoming...
Archiving type	Unknown
IRC channel	#appocalypse (on hackint)

Android is the operating system of various mobile phones. As of 2022, ~1.5M apps, some of which are on the Google Play Store, are at risk.

The main format of Android apps is the .apk file. However, there are several other formats available such as .xapk and .apks; and some associated formats such as .obb.

Archiving

APK Sites

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/14910/where-can-find-older-versions-of-apps^{[IA•Wcite•.today]}

• APKPure: https://apkpure.com/^{[IA•Wcite•.today]} (often blocked, Mirror: https://apkpure.net^{[IA•Wcite•.today]})
• F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/^{[IA•Wcite•.today]} (Repository: https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/^{[IA•Wcite•.today]})
• Android Drawer: http://www.androiddrawer.com/^{[IA•Wcite•.today]}
• APKCLASICO: https://apkclasico.com/^{[IA•Wcite•.today]}
• APK4Fun: http://www.apk4fun.com/^{[IA•Wcite•.today]}
• APKMirror: http://www.apkmirror.com/^{[IA•Wcite•.today]}
• Freeware Lovers: http://www.freewarelovers.com/^{[IA•Wcite•.today]} (Also BlackBerry, Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Symbian; offline)
• APKTop: http://www.papktop.com/^{[IA•Wcite•.today]} (offline)
• AppzApk: http://androidsandwich.com/^{[IA•Wcite•.today]} (offline)
• 1Mobile: http://www.1mobile.com/^{[IA•Wcite•.today]} (offline)
• XeeApk: http://xeeapk.com/^{[IA•Wcite•.today]} (offline)
• All Download APKs: http://www.alldownloadapk.com/^{[IA•Wcite•.today]} (offline)
• APK Monk: http://www.apkmonk.com/^{[IA•Wcite•.today]} (offline)
• Aurora Store: https://auroraoss.com/^{[IA•Wcite•.today]}

Downloading Apps

Other than APK sites, you can use gplay-dl to retrieve raw files directly from Google Play.

You can notably download older versions of apps using this program.

• Download the latest Windows/Linux artifact if you don't want to compile.
• Copy the .toml format in the page.
• Put the .toml in a folder.
• cd to this folder using the command prompt.
• Follow the README in order to get the auth token
• check-versions can check a range of available versions.
• check-devices checks if an app is compatible with a list of devices the program supports.
• The version mentioned in the commands does not refer to the publicly available version; it instead uses the internal version of an app, that tools like VirusTotal can display.

Google Play Store and App Info

In order to get the original size of an image on the Google Play Store, you have to remove everything after the =.

• https://play-lh.googleusercontent.com/WxKyi7bEHwnHPA6pEHWwJ2jhWwCcJHGtSQlFprcJBh_dvsTgh7IjPTOCapG6ry8m-eqBC4_sYDLq4qwcvPnb0Q=w480-h960-rw
• https://play-lh.googleusercontent.com/WxKyi7bEHwnHPA6pEHWwJ2jhWwCcJHGtSQlFprcJBh_dvsTgh7IjPTOCapG6ry8m-eqBC4_sYDLq4qwcvPnb0Q

In order to view a Google Play app from a different region, you have to add the query string gl= alongside a language code.

• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.uuum.blueman0
• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.uuum.blueman0&gl=jp

You can also check https://applion.jp/^{[IA•Wcite•.today]} for information on apps formerly on the Google Play Store, especially if the page is not on the Wayback Machine.

Creating a .xapk

Sometimes, a version of an app is missing from the sites listed above, and it becomes necessary to make a .xapk file as some apps don't run via a .apk file alone.

First, install the app via Google Play Store.

Four files must be present: base.apk (the app itself), the app's config apk files, manifest.json and icon.png

• To retrieve the config .apk files, go to /data/app/ on a file explorer in your Android device. Root required.
  • You can also get base.apk this way.
• Figure out which folder has the app you're looking for.
• Copy over the config apk files to your desktop.
• Create a folder and put all 4 files in it.
• For manifest.json, copy the format from another .xapk file, replacing the applicable data in the file. (TBD)
• For icon.png, acquire an image of the icon from within the app itself (so that it would match the app), preferably the highest quality icon. You can do this by opening the .apk in WinRAR/7zip/ etc.
• Compress the files as .zip. (Note: The archive should not include the folder, it should just be the 4 files.)
• The .xapk is now usable.

You can install a .xapk file on Android via the APKPure app, and you can natively install one via an Android emulator (drag and drop).

Online Mobile Games

Main article: Android Applications/https

The guide on intercepting HTTPS on Android can be used to preserve files from online mobile games.

A list of URLs to the game's downloaded assets can be generated using this guide, which can be run on ArchiveBot.

Some games require varying types of decryption methods to get the master list of assets however.

Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVCEmfgkuy4