When you buy an android phone it comes pre-loaded with some apps but you can always add more apps via the android market place or manually installing it by downloading the app file. The android OS has made the whole process so much easier that you really do not need to go into the manual mode just launch the android market place, search the app and with few taps you can get it installed on your android phone.
How to install android apps using Android market place
Apps from unknown sources can compromise your android handset security and for this reason the android handset by default does not allow installation of non-market applications. You can change that by going into settings -> applications and check Unknown sources.
When you are running the android market app from your handset the apps are automatically filtered depending upon its compatibility with the android OS version that is installed on the handset. So in case you want to install a specific app and do not find it there most probably the app required higher version of the android OS.
- Before you start the market app make sure 3G/2G is enabled.
- Just launch the menu from your android phone and look for market app. Tap it.
- Once the market app is launched you can either search for the apps or browse through category wise.
- When you find the app you were looking for, tap it and hit the install button and that’s it the app will then be downloaded and installed.
How to manually install apps on your android phone
Before we go through the process let us understand why one would want to install apps manually. In most cases it will be third party apps that are not hosted on the android market but a direct link is available to download it. Some websites also provide the options of downloading the apps (found on android market) to your computer which can then be installed on the android phone.
For manually installing android apps (APK files) all you need to do is download the APK file. Then connect your phone with the PC and copy the file onto the external or internal storage. Then disconnect the phone and using a file manager like ASTRO you can browse to the location of the APK file and tap it. The app will then be installed. In case you are using an older android version and the app requires a newer version the app will not be installed.