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Put any device in God Mode and use Google Play

By
August 9, 2012

What’s that you say? You want to install Android apps on your old devices, but Google Play won’t work? Have no fear, for we have the next best option: virtualization. That’s right! An Android emulator is running amuck on the range, so let’s rope in the details and get right down to business.

There are 3, count them, three separate APK’s for this function:

  • GoogleLoginService.apk
  • GoogleFrameworkServices.apk,
  • Phonesky.apk  (there is an older version named Vending.apk)

The way these can be had is to search the /system/app folder on your device and issue a command, ‘adb pull’ to get the items quickly. Once you do that, push them to install on the emulator with the following command:

Code
#!/bin/sh
echo "remounting..."
adb remount
echo "pushing login apk..."
adb push GoogleLoginService.apk /system/app/.
echo "pushing framework apk..."
adb push GoogleServicesFramework.apk /system/app/.
echo "pushing vending apk..."
adb push Phonesky.apk /system/app/.
echo "done"

That’s it. You’re all done and Google Play should work now ! But wait.. what’s this when downloading? Error 491? The solution for that is beyond the scope of brevity, so we’ve listed below some reference points below. As imagined, only free apps are available for download and install on this fun emulator hack. The Apkudo team is now working to get functionality to browse, install and use any app but there are no reports yet of an alpha build.

Would you use an emulator everyday?  Have you tried this experiment with any luck yet? Let us know in the comments below!