APKUpdater keeps your sideloaded Android apps up to date
APKUpdater is a free application for Google Android devices that you can utilize to keep sideloaded apps up to date on the device.
Apps that you install through marketplaces, Google Play is without doubt the dominant one on Android, are usually kept more or less up to date automatically. While it depends on how you have configured this, app updates may either be downloaded and installed automatically, or you may be notified about new updates so that you can go ahead and run the updates manually.
This process won't work for sideloaded apps. Sideloaded apps are apps that are not installed through Google Play but either manually by direct download, by transferring them from other sources to the device, or by marketplaces that don't offer automatic updates functionality.
There are two issues that you will run into when sideloading apps. First, it may be difficult to keep an overview of which apps were sideloaded and which were not. Second, these apps may not be up to date. They may miss features, security updates, or bug fixes as a consequence.
APKUpdater
APKUpdater has been designed to resolve those issues. It is a tool that helps you manage sideloaded apps.
Two of the apps main features are that it lists apps in its interface for easier managing, and that it may check for updates and inform you about the availability of updates.
The app uses APKMirror as its main source for checking for updates, but it is not the only one. You can enable source checking on Google Play, and APKPure as well in the apps' settings.
You may want to check the settings on first start for another reason. The app checks for alpha and beta builds (experimental) as well which you may not want. You need to disable that in the options.
Other useful settings there are to add apps to the ignore list to block them from update checks, changing the frequency of automated checks, and adjusting notifications.
APKUpdater lists all installed apps (not system apps) in its interface on start. A tap on the update button checks for updates, and displays any found under updates in the interface.
The application lists the name of the app an update was found for, the version, package name, and source.
A tap on the listed application launches the default browser on the Android device and opens the source site in it. From there you can download the new apk file after making sure that it is indeed the app you are looking for, and install it after the download.
Closing Words
APKUpdater improves the update checking process for sideloaded apps. While it does not introduce Google Play like automatic updates to the Android device for sideloaded apps, it improves the process nevertheless by informing you about updates regularly.
The app won't catch apps that are not listed on APK Mirror or one of the other sources though, so keep that in mind when you are using it. (thanks Mark)
Now You: How do you handle updates for sideloaded Android apps?
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?