Open APK files on PC with Android Studio
A file APK is an archive containing the files needed to install an application on Android. In this regard, free software can be used Android Studio, developed by Google, for app design. This program allows, therefore, to decompile an APK file and view its contents. If you are interested in Android Studio, I recommend that you go to the official website and click on the button Download Android Studio, located in the center of the web page. On the next screen, put a check mark in the box below and press the button Download Android Studio.
By doing so, the file will be downloaded .exe for Windows o .dmg for macOS. After downloading the file, if you use Windows double-click on it and hit Yup, in the User Account Control window. In the screen that is shown to you, then press the button Next three consecutive times and, at the end of the installation, presses the button Finish. If you use macOS, instead, double-click on the file you downloaded and, on the screen that is shown to you, drag Android Studio in the folder Applications.
After that, start Android Studio through its icon that you find on the desktop Windows or the Launchpad of macOS. Then press the button OK and, in the screen you see, click on the button Next three consecutive times and wait for the download of all the components necessary for the program to work. When finished, click Finish to display the main Android Studio screen.
From the items that are shown to you in the on-screen box, select the one named Open an existing Android Studio project and, in the screen you see, select the APK file of your interest, confirming with the button Open. If you have followed the instructions I have given you to the letter, you will have successfully opened the APK file, viewing all the files inside it, in the central pane of the main screen of Android Studio.
Open APK files on PC via Android emulator
If you want to run an Android app on your computer, you need to use a Android emulator: there are several, I have also talked about them in this guide of mine, but today I will show you the procedure to follow with BlueStacks, a famous free Android emulation software downloadable on both Windows and macOS, via its official website.
To download BlueStacks on your computer, reach the link I gave you a moment ago, press the button Download BlueStacks and, on the next screen, click the button Download. After downloading the program installation file (in .exe on Windows or in .dmg on macOS), double click on it and follow the procedure shown on the screen.
Su Windows, then press on Yes in the window of User Account Control and click sul pulsating Install now. Now, wait for the installation procedure to complete and press the button Full. On MacOSinstead, double-click the icon BlueStacks in the screen that is shown to you and then press the button apri. Now, in the new screen that you see, click on Continuation and then Install, type the Password on the Mac and press the key Install Assistant. At the end of the installation procedure, click on the button Apri the system preference, click your Allow and then press the icon with the padlock lower left. At this point, type the Password on your Mac and press the button Unlock.
After starting BlueStacks, you will be asked to set up a Google account. Then press the button Start and log in with your Gmail account credentials, following the procedure on the screen. At this point, press the button Get started with BlueStacks to start using the Android emulator.
Now that you have installed and configured BlueStacks, you can open an APK file with ease. On the main emulator screen, locate the wording Apps installed, located in the upper left corner. Then click on the icon ⋮ that you find next to it and, in the box you see, select the item Install APK.
At this point, through the screen that is shown to you, you just have to look for the APK file on your computer and select it, confirming the operation using the button apri. By doing so, the installation of the APK file will be performed and it will be possible to run the application contained in it.
As an alternative to this procedure, after installing and configuring BlueStacks, you can simply double-click the APK file to open it and then install it inside the emulator.
Extract APK files on PC
An APK file can be opened on a PC with any software or data storage tool, such as WinRAR o WinZip. In this guide, however, I will tell you about the free program 7-Zip, available only on Windows. However, being an open source software, its main development code (p7zip) is used for the development of other software, also free, such as cake, For MacOS. In the next chapters, I will show you how to extract the contents of an APK file using 7-Zip for Windows and cake for macOS.
7-Zip (Windows)
A computer is available Windows, among the many software for compressing and extracting archives, I recommend you to use 7-Zip, available for free via the official website. It is an open source program that allows you to manage archives with RAR, CAB, GZIP, 7Z, ZIP and even APK extensions.
If you are interested in using 7-Zip, reach the link I provided and click on the entry Download, corresponding to the version of the computer architecture. Once this is done, when the file download is complete .exe, double-click on it and hit Yes, in the window of User Account Control Windows. At this point, in the screen that is shown to you, click on the button install and, at the end of the procedure, press the button Close.
To open an APK package and extract its contents to your computer, right-click on the file and, in the context menu, select the items 7-Zip> Extras and files. You will be shown a screen in which you will have to select the destination in which to extract the contents of the APK file. Then press the button OK to start extracting the files and, in a few seconds, that's it. The folder containing the APK files will be in the destination previously selected by you.
Keka (macOS)
As I have already told you, cake is a free software for macOS that allows you to manage compressed archives, such as those in RAR, ZIP, 7Z and APK format, with the possibility of extracting their content on the computer in any destination selected by the user. If you are interested in downloading it to your Mac, go to its official website and click the button Download vx.xx, which you find on the left. You can also download it directly from the Mac App Store, but in that case a payment of $ 1,99 is required (to support its development).
After downloading the .dmg of Keka, open it and drag the program in the folder Applications macOS to complete its installation. Its icon will be available in the Launchpad in case you want to access the Keka main screen, but this procedure is not required to open an APK file.
What you need to do is to simply go to the location where the APK file is present and double click on it. By doing so, you will be shown a screen to select the destination where to extract the contents of the APK file. Then choose the folder on your Mac and press the button Extract, located at the bottom right.
If you have performed the procedure correctly, you will find the contents of the APK file inside a folder in the destination you have selected. voices Open with> Keka from the context menu of macOS. In case of errors in running the software, go to the folder Applications and start it by right clicking on its icon and selecting the item apri twice in a row: this operation is only necessary at the first start and is used to bypass macOS restrictions on applications from non-certified developers.
How to open APK files on PC
