This guide will see how to know and check if an Apk application is safe to install, has a virus, or is fake.
On several occasions and due to certain circumstances, an Android application is not available on Google Play. The only way to install it is to obtain the APK of that app on the Internet, which is when we can find unsafe APKs.
Suppose there is one thing that always made the Android key, freedom, both in customizing devices and installing applications. Do you want to download apps and games from sites other than the Google Play Store, the system’s official store? No problem. Of course, be very careful with these applications.
The .apk files are compressed, and the Android applications are ready to be installed on the system. They can come from anywhere, but the normal thing is that they are the same that anyone can download from Google Play.
The APK is a format that we manage quite frequently on Android, especially if you download applications from alternative stores to the Play Store. Although we use well-known and safe sites, the risk when downloading this format is greater than when downloading applications in the normal way on your phone. It is common for a virus to sneak into your phone in this way.
DONT MISS- How To Avoid Android Viruses
Therefore, you need to verify the veracity and safety of this APK before installing it on your phone. To do this, we can use some tools to check if there are viruses or malware, thus avoiding problems on our Android phone.
How to know if an Apk application is safe or has been modified
The developer signs all Android applications. This implies that every app and game distributed through the Google Play Store includes a signature or certificate that makes it recognizable in doubt of authenticity.
When the application is modified (to introduce malware, adware, viruses, or alter its functioning), the application cannot be signed with the original certificate, so it loses its identification code. And it is the best weapon to know if a downloaded Apk is reliable or not.
Before installing any Apk file that you have downloaded, we advise you to verify its authenticity, especially if the site from which you downloaded it is not 100% reliable. One way to check the signature is to do it via the Apk Pure site:
- Access the Apk Pure signature checker.
- Upload your Apk. It doesn’t matter if you have it on your mobile or computer, but it is advisable to upload the application via WiFi. The limitation of the file to be checked is 100 MB.
- Apk pure will tell you if the uploaded app signature matches the original app certificate. If it is authentic, you can install the application on your mobile with the same peace of mind with which you download from the Google Play Store.
Total virus- check an APK before downloading it.
Virus Total is one of the best-known options to check if an APK is free of viruses or threats before installing it on your phone. It is a reliable platform that works using a database of over 70 different antiviruses, which is what does not allow viruses, malware, or threats to escape you. This will tell us if it is safe to install this file or not.
The operation of Virus Total is also very simple because we will not have to install anything on our phones. It can be used from the browser itself, on the phone, or on the computer. Then you can check whether this APK you want is safe or not. The steps to use it are:
- Open the Virus Total page in your browser.
- Click on the File tab.
- Upload the APK in question.
- Click analyze.
- Wait for Virus Total to complete the scan.
The analysis takes little time; in less than a minute, we usually have the result. It will then tell us if this APK we want to install on the phone is safe or not.
With the two steps listed, you can almost 100% make sure that the Apk files you have downloaded are safe and reliable. There is no complete security as there is always room for error, but at least, in this case, it is minimal. Of course, we recommend that you download applications from Google Play.
MUST-READ- 5 Ways to avoid virus attack on your Android smartphone
If even with all of the above, you still have doubts, you can try to download the APK to your computer and install the application in APK format in BlueStacks to test and use it for a while until you finally decide to install it on your mobile or Tablet.
BlueStacks is like a fully functional Android virtual machine where you can install apps from Google Play or via APK. In this case, install the app and try it for a few days to see if it works well or you see strange things, etc.
