Most of us Android mobile phone users keep installing and trying different applications and games from the Google Play store frequently. These applications are installed automatically and just appear on our mobile game downloads devices once we click the install button. Conversely, there is another way to install applications and games, and also live wallpaper on your mobile phone without using an application store like Google Play. That is where APK or Android application Package files are important.

Anybody who has used an Android smart phone and likes to install plenty of applications and games will likely have heard or read about APK files. The APK file extension is a special file format that works much like a standard EXE or executable file does on a Windows computer. It can be executable program file that installs an application on your Android smartphone.

These files are extremely easy to use but you first need to setup your phone to install applications from third-party sources. There is an alternative for that in your phone's settings, usually found within the security or applications settings sections. When you check that, you only need to copy an APK file to your memory card, and you are good to go.

On the flip side, the tricky part is finding a reliable source of these files. You can't just download files with the APK file extension from any website. Quite several sites that do not run proper antivirus checks and verify the application files uploaded there. Several of these will be able to be viruses or other malware designed to give someone else access to your phone's features like the camera, microphone, your picture gallery and contacts lists, breaching your privacy. As long while you download APK files from reliable sources however, you shouldn't possess any problems.

By and large, you'll find discontinued applications or live wallpapers like Flappy Bird online in the type of APK files that other people that use the app have uploaded to web pages. They can be a really good source of custom applications also that users made for their own use. Those simple, small, and mostly ad free applications are great to add some new features to your phone for example a flashlight or an RSS reader. On the contrary, one should be mindful about what file we download and from where because not everyone will make good quality applications and some can even mess up the phone if run on an incompatible device.