There’s any number of reasons you may wish to download an APK rather than use the Play Store to install it direct on one of your devices; Anything from sideloading onto a device that’s not officially supported, to bandwidth saving or perhaps rolling back to an older version of an app and Raccoon APK downloader can solve your issues.
I had a use case to check this out personally when I got asked if NBA Jam works on the Nexus Player with the controller, but unfortunately NBA Jam isn’t supported on the Nexus Player (at least not officially anyway).
Their webpage describes Raccoon as
- A Google Play desktop client that runs on Linux, MacOS X and MS Windows systems.
- Faster and easier to navigate than the official smartphone / tablet app.
- The only APK downloader that is able to fetch paid apps as well (including their asset files).
- A superior and more reliable solution when compared to web based alternatives.
It’s time to note that just because the features list says you can grab paid apps, doesn’t mean it’s time to pirate. No sir. You’ll need to add your Google Play credentials including your gmail account, password and Google Service Framework ID.
There’s two ways to grab your Googel Service Framework ID :
The manual way :
- Open dial pad, call “*#*#8255#*#*” (without the quotation marks) This should open ‘GTalk Service Monitor’.
- Look for a line which has JID and Device ID (your email is your JID and your device ID is a string of characters with “android-” prefixed (eg: android-1234567890abcdef) your Device ID is the string minus the “android-”
Automatic way:
Install the Device ID App from Google Play :
It didn’t take long to download Raccoon, grab the APK to my Macbook then sideload to my Nexus Player. The process to install is very simple, download and execute. The process to download an APK to your machine really couldn’t be simpler; search and hit download.
The way Raccoon works is by identifying itself as a “device” to your Play Store account which allows it to connect to the Play Store, Search for apps & download the APKs to your desktop or laptop and use them as you please from there.
It’s an easy way to grab APKs without the need to root your device. You can grab a copy of Raccoon from their download page and try it out for yourself.
Let us know when you could have, or have used Raccoon APK downloader
I wanted to play Space Team with a friend while we were out in the boonies, he didn’t have it. Ended up finding the APK in a file explorer (root) and sending to him, installing and got it working. So you can get it on another device and then copy over if needed. Especially if games have a tablet and phone version – and both cost.
I’m just wondering how long until the Big G blocks this.
What about Android users who don’t use Rotten Fruit Co hardware or OS?
Did you read the post Jeni?
A Google Play desktop client that runs on Linux, MacOS X and MS Windows systems.
I’m an advocate of Android (clearly) but for anyone who’s taken the time to check it out, I don’t think you’ll get any argument that Apple (I presume the “rotten fruit” you refer to) make truly outstanding hardware that unfortunately you do pay a premium for.