Raccoon is a desktop application that lets you download Android app installer files directly from the Google Play Store. It’s a useful tool for saving backups of your apps or for transferring Android apps to a device that either doesn’t have the Play Store installed or which Google thinks isn’t compatible with the particular app you want to install.
I wrote about Raccoon a few years ago, but recently the developer rolled out a major update. Raccoon has a new user interface and a few nifty new features — but you’ll have to pay to use some of them.
Raccoon basically reports itself to the Google Play Store as an Android device. So when you login with your Google account you can download and save free or paid apps.
Type the name of the app you’re looking for into the search bar and results will show up on the right, and details for the app you select are displayed in the left side of the app, showing you the file size, version number, price, date of the last update, and other details including screenshots and app permissions.
Once you download an app, you can click a button to go to open your file explorer and go to the location where it’s stored. But there’s also a premium option that lets you wirelessly transfer an APK to your phone: just use a QR code scanning app on your phone to point your camera at your computer screen and Raccoon will set up a web server that lets you download the file over your local network.
A Raccoon premium license sells for 7.99 Euros, or about $8.60.
via /r/Android
Is this an Android emulator too? I didn’t get what it is really for…
How about comparing it to gplaycli/googleplaydownloader?
This would make a lot more sense if it ran on the device instead of a windows desktop.
Will this let you sideload apps to Amazon Fire OS devices?
All this does is download an app from the Play store as a standalone APK file. You can then transfer and install it onto anything that can install an APK file… Fire OS, Android, Cyanogen, etc. You’ll still need to use an APK installer on the target device itself.
I’ve used this both for installing the Logitech Harmony controller on a Fire tablet and for installing device-restricted video apps (like WatchESPN) onto my GPD XD Android gaming tablet (which I assume reports to Play Store as a non-American device).
Major downside to Fire OS: Some apps require Google Play services and even when I’ve tried to sideload them, they still pop up with errors. Unless you can root it and/or mod it to utilize Google Play Services or a standard vanilla Android distro, your mileage may vary.