An APK file is the last item that is produced after developing an Android application. It runs with the. apk extension and is also known as Android Application Package. It’s like an .exe document that is utilized to install Windows Programs. Presently, as you may know (or not), it’s not an easy task to extract this APK record from an application.  It may be simple if your phone is rooted but not so much if you’ve got non-rooted Android device. Well, the truth is it’s not as tough as you might have thought. Today, I’ll demonstrate to you a couple of techniques through which you can remove the APK of an introduced application on your phone.

Disclaimer: It is illegal to extract the APK of a paid Android app. In the event that you do as such then you yourself will be in charge of it. This guide has been composed with the spirit reason to share learning of separating APK for training purposes. We don’t support piracy.

 Method 1:Using an Advanced File Explorer:

As said above, if your device has root access then you can use an advanced file explorer that allows you to browse root folders. For the most part, the installed apps are found in “/data/apps“.  In this way, from here you can just copy the APK files and paste it wherever you need. Be that as it may, you can likewise extricate APK of installed apps using an advanced file explorer on a non-rooted Android phone.

We’ll be using here ES File Explorer for that. You can use any other file manager app if you want but do make sure it allows you to backup installed apps. Yes, that’ll be the key thing here that will help us extract the APK.

The steps are simple. Open ES File Explorer and tap on “App” in the home page of the app, as shown in below screenshots. Now, long tap on the app that you want to extract the APK of and tap on the “Backup” option available at the bottom.

The app will be backed up with the extracted. apk file. You’ll find the APK file in a folder named “Backup” in your internal storage. IF you find this method simpler, the next method is even easier.

Method 2: Download the APK Extractor App:

Well, what about an app that can extract APK? Well, the APK Extractor app works exactly as its name suggests. Download the app from Play Store and install it.

The working of the app is extremely basic.  The home page of the app shows you all the system and third party apps on your phone. You can simply look for the application you need to extract the APK of. At that point, simply tap on the app a that’s it. The APK will be extracted and saved in the folder called “ExtractedAPKs” in your device’s internal storage.

In the app settings, you can change the destination folder of the extracted APKs. You can likewise set the name format. For example, you can set the APK files to first have the App name and then the package name. You can also add the app version in the name for better understanding. Apart from that, you can even set up programmed reinforcement of APKs in the event that you need. It’s all accessible in the settings.

Additionally, there is an option available for you to share the APK to others utilizing the app itself. Simply, tap on the drop-down icon next to the app and you’ll get the choice to share it. The application will initially extract the APK and then the share panel will pop up. You can then choose the app through which you’d like to share the APK.

Method 3: Extracting APK Using ADB:

All things considered, in case you’re an Avid Android User or an Android engineer then you should think about ADB.  The Android Debug Bridge is fundamentally a charge line utility that is accessible with Android SDK, which enables you to control your phone and manage files inside your storage using different commands. It can access the root folders easily as the main purpose is for debugging.

Along these lines, with a couple set of charges, you can without much of a stretch concentrate APK to our PC or Mac in the coveted envelope. Presently, in case you’re very little mindful of ADB then you may feel that is Android SDK vital for ADB to work? Well no, it’s definitely not. Truth be told, Google gives a different bundle of stage instruments that contains the ADB. You can download it from here.

After you have downloaded the tools, just extract the zip and open the folder. You’ll find adb.exe file in the folder along with fastboot (we’ll not be using it). Now, press Shift and right click in the folder to get the option for “Open command window here” in the right-click menu.

Next, connect your phone to the PC or Mac via USB cable and make sure USB debugging is turned ON in the Developer Options. Now, follow the commands given below.

We’ll first check if the device is connected to your computer or not. Enter the following command:

adb devices

Next, we’ll grab the app package name. If you already know the package name then you can skip this step. Enter the following command.

adb shell pm list packages

Now, just copy the package name that you’d like to extract. And paste it in the next command. Don’t copy ‘package:’ prefix along with it. Enter the following command. Here, I’m extracting .apk of Truecaller.

adb shell pm path com.truecaller

The above command will give you the path of the actual APK of the app. Now, you just have to perform a pull command to pull the .apk from this path and store it to our desired location. Make sure you copy the path of the desired location and paste it in the below-given command. Also, copy the path of the actual .apk that we got as result in the previous command.

adb pull /data/app/com.truecaller-1/base.apk path/to/desired/location

The. apk file should now be stored in your desired location.

Best Ways to Extract APK of Android Apps:

No matter what reason it might be for you to extract an APK; make sure you support the developers, as they deserve to be rewarded for their hard work. Talking about the best way, it’s surely the second method. The APK extractor is basically performing the same Shell commands that we performed in ADB.