If you have a Kindle Fire device or any other tablet that is not Google certified, then you don’t have official access to the Google Play Store. That can be a pain since the Play Store has thousands of apps. You can find many of those apps from third-party appstores but you have to be very careful as those are full of malware. The safest method is to use another Android device that has access to the Play Store and obtain the apk file then transfer to your other device. But many don’t have a second device and have to spend time hunting it down on the internet. Here we try to provide some apk files for users but we can’t provide everything. Now, you can get your own apk files using your computer with a virtual Android emulator. It’s not that hard and we have instructions below.
The following was discovered and written by John Gordon who was kind enough to provide this information to Android Cowboy so we can pass it on to other users.
What you’ll need: Genymotion with virtual emulator WXGA 10.1 Tablet – 4.22 – with Google Apps – API 17 – 1280×800; Google Play Store app, Google Drive app, ES File Explorer app.
Instructions for installing Genymotion and download links can be found here: http://www.qosmodro.me/2013/
1. Open Genymotion, start the WXGA 10.1 Tablet – 4.22 – with Google Apps emulator, and download the app you want to sideload from the Google Store.
2. Open ES File Explorer, and select App Manager on the left. Press and hold the app you’ve just downloaded to select it. Press the Backup button at the bottom of the screen. You will get a message saying that the app was backed up successfully.
3. Click the left-most icon in the upper center to choose “Local” and navigate to sdcard/backups/apps to see the app you just backed up. Click and hold to select it. Press the Rename button below, and change the extension from .apk to .zip. (Strangely, Google Drive will not accept .apk files)
4. Start the Google Drive app, and choose the + icon in the upper right to choose your file. Choose “Upload”, and navigate to /sdcard/backup/apps/. Choose the file you renamed, and select the second option (File Way) for uploading.
5. Open Google Drive in a browser on your computer – in a few minutes, you’ll see the file you uploaded. Check the box to the left of it, and choose the “More” icon above the file listing. Choose “Download”, and download it to your computer. Change the extension back to .apk; you can now install it to your Amazon Kindle. (Alternatively, you can directly download the file to your Kindle using ES File Explorer app with Google Drive. For instructions go Kindle Fire HDX" href="http://androidcowboy.com/2013/10/access-cloud-drives-kindle-fire-hdx/">here.)
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