One of the features of the Google Play app store is that it allows you to install apps directly on your Android device, but does not allow downloads. This usually does not create any inconvenience, since there is no need to download APK files.
But, in some cases, such a need may nevertheless appear. For example, if the app or game you want is not available for your region. In this case, you will not be able to simply go to Google Play and install the application, as you will receive an error message.
In this article, we will look at two simple ways that will allow you to download APK files from Google Play to your computer and then.
Method number 1. Download APK files from Google Play using the service.
But that's not all. The apk-dl.com service makes it even easier to download APK files from Google Play. On the application page on Google Play, you can replace part of the play.google.com address with apk-dl.com and press enter.
In this case, you will immediately see a page with information about the application and the button "Download APK File".
Method number 2. Download APK files from Google Play to your computer using the service.
The online service works in exactly the same way as apk-dl.com described above. First, we go to the Google Play website, find there the application that we want to download to our computer, and copy its address from the address bar of the browser.
After that, information about the downloaded application and a green button "Click here to download" will appear on the screen. Click it to start downloading the APK file.
It should be noted that this online service does not support changing part of the address, as it works on apk-dl.com. Here, be sure to copy the page address and paste it into the search form.
To download the latest version of the official Android application, just go to the Play Store, find the program you need in it and start downloading.
What is Play Market. Benefits of downloading apps from Google Play
So, what is Play Market ( Google Play Market) and "what do they eat it with"? To put it simply, this is the official catalog of Android apps. In addition to the official name, it is also customary to use names such as "Android Market" and "Google Market".
How to optimally configure the Play Market
Let's briefly talk about how to set up the Play Store on a tablet. For complete comfort when working with the Play Market service, there are a number of useful options.
If you do not want to download updates of installed applications from the Market via the mobile Internet in order to save financial resources, In Play Market, you can configure the use of only Wi-Fi for tasks of this kind.
To get quick access to new applications on Android, shortcuts can be automatically created on the home screen for each new applet.
In addition, among other Android Market settings, there are notifications about auto-update and parental controls for installed applications.
Regarding security when working with the store and preventing private information and data about your credit card from falling into the wrong hands, additional authentication is available when purchasing and clearing the history of search queries.
Summary... An alternative to the Play Market is third-party resources with free software for Android. If you trust a particular forum or tracker, you can rely on unlicensed content. But in order to fully enjoy all the opportunities and services provided by the developers in the game or business application, the license will be irreplaceable. In any case, we advise you to go to the Play Market in order to update installed applications or find some interesting new products for yourself.
Answers to readers' questions
I wanted to download apps from the play market, but I didn't have enough memory. I went into the memory settings and deleted the folders, and because of them the pictures were deleted.
Answer... You never asked the question, but the context makes it clear that you need to recover photos, not Google Play. The section is intended for this. Study it carefully, install the proposed programs (PhotoRec, Recuva, Card Recovery, etc.) - this will solve the problem.
The Iota mobile application from the Play Store does not download to the Prestigio phone, it says that there is no memory. The size of the Iota application in the Play Market is 17 MB, and the available memory in the phone is 290 MB. What to do?
Answer... It looks like you want to fill all the system memory of the device. This is not worth doing. We advise you to purchase a spacious sd card and download all user files and applications from the play market there as well.
The tablet started to glitch after we went into the settings and could not exit the settings to the main screen. They wrote to us that applications were not responding (almost all applications) and we decided to restart the tablet. We rebooted - and all downloaded applications disappeared there. When we turn on the tablet, everything disappears again, even if we download something from Google Play again.
Answer... First, check the operability of the memory card on which you installed the applications. This can be done through a card reader, at the same time you can format the sd card with a program such as SDFormatter (you can download it).
If all applications were downloaded to the internal memory of the tablet, make sure that there are no conflicts with other programs on Android. The best way to do this is to uninstall unnecessary applications or those after which the tablet began to glitch.
The most radical way to fix the problem is to update your Android firmware. After flashing, go to the Play Store and download all applications again.
When downloading an application or game through the Play Market for Android, it gives an error: you need to log into your Google account. What to do?
Answer... If you cannot log into the Play Store, most likely you are not logged into Google or are not logged into your Google Play account. To create an account, you need to do the following:
- Go to Settings - Accounts
- To create an account, tap Add account> Google
- Follow the instructions in the wizard
This Google account can be used to log into the Play Market app on your phone.
After changing the software on a Sony smartphone, when I tried to enter Google Play, a message appeared on the screen "Google Play service has been suspended." What caused this? Is it possible to fix the problem and resume logging into the Play Store on your own, or can only the service center be able to do this?
Answer... Go to Android Settings -> Apps menu -> Manage Apps. Click the All button to enable the disabled service in the list. After that you will be able to enter the Play Market.
If this method does not help to enter the play market and the error persists, try the following trick: go to the Application Management menu (see above) and clear the application cache by selecting the "Delete data - Clear cache" command sequence.
Downloading applications and games on your phone from the Play Market is very convenient and safe, especially after a series of deletions of malware from the store. The software downloads and installs at a tremendous speed. But people still need to download the game from the Play Store to a smartphone or PC in .apk format. Today we will tell you what better ways to use for this.
How to download games from the Play Store to a computer / laptop?
First, let's look at the nuances of downloading games to devices running Windows.
APK Downloader
APK Downloader service allows you to download almost any application from Google Play in just two minutes. The procedure is extremely simple, follow the steps below and you will succeed.
That's all, the task is completed, it was not even required to install extraneous programs on the PC.
Attention! Thus, you will not be able to download a paid application.
How to run Android games on Windows?
We bring to your attention two options, both of them work great, which one to use is up to you.
Naturally, it will not be possible to launch the program, since this resolution is not supported by the operating system from Microsoft. However, there are several well-known Android emulators that can help you play green robot games on Windows. We recommend using a software called BlueStacks 2. This is perhaps the best emulator that developers improve and provide for free, modernizing it and making the product better. By the way, having downloaded it, you can use not only games, but also any applications.
Consider installing BlueStacks 2.
A shortcut to the program will appear on the desktop, from there and launch it. 
Now go through the initial setup, which boils down to connecting your Google account and activating synchronization. You will not have any difficulties with this. You can enter your real mail, you can create a new one - it's up to you.
Go to the Play Market through BlueStacks 2, look for the desired program and install. After that, you can use it in the same way as on a smartphone.
This emulator is distinguished by its interface and advanced settings. It should be said that the appearance of the windows and the program menu here are more similar to the stock "green robot". The controls are at the bottom, there are buttons for calling multitasking, "Back", "Home". 
Here you also need to link an account to manage programs. All installed .apk files will be displayed in the list of programs. 
How to download games from the Play Store to your phone?
In the same way, you can download games to an SD card from the market using an Android gadget. Go to the APK Downloader resource, then go to the Play Market, select the application, copy its link in the download service field and save it to your tablet or phone. You can find it using any file manager such as ES Explorer or Total Commander. There is no point in offering other download options, as this one functions flawlessly.
As a result, there are two ways to download games from the Play Store to your laptop and computer. They are both free. In the first case, you need to use the service, and in the second, it means installing an emulator, which also makes it possible to play games on Android via a PC.
Most users tend to install apps on their mobile devices from official sources. In the case of Android OS, this is the Google Play store. The main advantage of this method of installing programs is regular updates. Google does not recommend, but still allows you to install applications on your smartphone or tablet downloaded from other sources. However, in doing so, you lose the ability to receive updates for them. As it turned out, there are solutions here, as always, to have up-to-date versions of applications on your device.
Why download apps from other sources?
There may be several reasons for this. For example, some developers do not want to publish their programs on Google Play, while others are prohibited from doing so by Google if their software product contradicts the rules for posting. Often, large companies, for one reason or another, can set regional restrictions on access to their applications - a striking example of such a case is the game Pokémon GO or the official client of the music streaming service Spotify, which are still not available in the Ukrainian segment of the app store.
It should not be ruled out that Google Play does not work in some countries, including China. Accordingly, the branded skins of Chinese mobile devices intended for sale in the domestic market do not contain Google services. And the last reason is that recently users of smartphones and tablets have independently abandoned Google services in favor of increasing the autonomy of the device.
The only way to install an application on a smartphone or tablet in such cases is to download its APK file from other resources.
Where can I get Android apps besides Google Play?
There are plenty of such resources on the web, but there are not so many reputable and, importantly, safe ones. One of the most popular is the APK Downloader web service, which allows you to download application installation files from the Google Play store. To do this, just insert the address of the page of the desired program on Google Play into the search bar and click the "Generate Download Link" button. APK Downloader will download the app and give you a direct link to the APK file.
Other sources for downloading programs are APKMirror and APKPure resources. Let's make a reservation right away that these sites do not contain paid programs, but are repositories of free applications, in fact, a kind of "mirror" of Google Play. APKMirror, in turn, includes programs unpublished in the official store, as well as experimental versions of applications.
Regardless of which resource you choose, you must allow the installation of applications from unknown sources in the settings of your device.
How do I update apps installed from unofficial sources?
The only problem with installing apps from third-party sources is that you won't receive updates. This applies to those cases when you do not have Google services or the installed application is not available in your region. Therefore, in order to update the program, you will have to download the new version again. But there is a better way - these are special applications.
APKUpdater
APKUpdater is a small utility that looks for updates for all installed applications on the device and notifies about their availability. There are only two tabs in the program: the first one displays a list of all available applications, the second - the updates available for them.
If there is a new version of the application, the utility shows a link to download it. APKUpdater looks for updates not only in the official Google Play store (via APK Downloader), but also on APKMirror and APKPure resources. Thus, in a couple of clicks, you can update all applications installed from unofficial sources, and even those that are not on Google Play.
In the APKUpdater settings, you can select or exclude certain sources: Google Play, APKMirror and APKPure. In addition to release updates, the utility allows you to receive alpha and beta versions of applications. APKUpdater can check for updates in the background and notify the user about it. This action can be set to repeat daily or weekly.
In general, APKUpdater acts more as a tool for finding new versions of installed applications, with which you can always keep the programs on your smartphone or tablet up to date. If at the same time the utility knew how to independently update applications, this would be an ideal solution.
APKPure App
APKPure App is an alternative app store that is the official client of the APKPure service. Unlike APKUpdater, the utility allows you to search and download APK files of games and applications from only one source.
APKPure has a simple classic interface and user-friendly content structure. The main advantage of the application is the ability to update installed programs. The utility automatically detects the availability of new versions of applications and notifies the user about it. In addition, APKPure has the ability to auto-install downloaded APK files and remove software packages after they are installed.
As you can see, there are worthy alternatives to the Google Play store, so in the absence of the latter, you can always install almost any application on your smartphone or tablet.
To install an application from Google Play on your android device, you can download the apk file to your computer directly from the application store. Then, the downloaded file, you need to download using any file manager on your device and install the application.
You may ask, “Why is this necessary? Isn't it easier to go through the device directly to Google Play itself and install the desired application or game? "
Yes, indeed, in most cases there is no need to use this method of installing applications, but there are several reasons why it is not possible to use Google Play directly:
- When you try to install an application or game, a message appears stating that they are not compatible with your android device. In turn, you are sure that this application or game should work on your mobile device.
- An app or game on Google Play is not available for installation in your country or region.
- You want to install an application on a device that does not have internet connectivity or that does not support installation from Google Play at all.
How to download apk file from Google Play to computer
Now let's figure out how to do it point by point:
2. Find the application or game you want.
3. Go to the main page of the application and copy its address in the browser.
4. Open the apk file downloader page apps.evozi.com in the browser and paste in the field Package name or Google Play URL the address copied earlier.
5. Press the button Generate Download Link
6. After processing the link, a little below information about the downloaded apk file and a button for downloading it to your computer will appear. Click it.
That's all. After the download process is complete, you will have a full apk file to install the application or game on your android device.
As you can see, it is very easy to download the apk file from Google Play to your computer, but there is one limitation - you can download only free applications and games. This is done in order to prevent the use of this service for the purpose of illegal (pirated) use of paid applications.
Addition.
The service described above does not always work as expected. Therefore, if you were unable to download the apk file, you can try to do it using other sites that work in a similar way. Here is a list of them:
https://androidappsapk.co/apkdownloader/ (added by josethuong)
If you need to supplement this list with other services, write in the comments.
