It is time to break the rules and use the best illegal Android apps that the Google Play refuses to house on its platform. Here’s our curated collection of the best Android apps that Google would deem “illegal”, but the Android community at large seems to love and adore.
For those of you who do remember the age of Symbian OS when Nokia was leading the mobile market space, you know how difficult it was to get a hold of third-party apps. The Symbian OS was open-source, allowing users to download apps online from websites and then install them directly to the devices. However, with the introduction of the Apple iPhone in the year 2000, this concept changed, as Apple enforced a strict closed-loop environment with the iOS, where users could only install apps from the Apple App Store, and it quickly became the norm.
For a while, until Symbian OS did not perish, there existed the Nokia Ovi Suite app store, and a few years after Google took over Android OS, the mighty Google Play Store was released. Being the largest library of mobile apps on the planet, it is safe to say that the Play Store redefined what a smartphone was, adding more features to mobile devices than we could ever think was possible. While Symbian OS may be dead and buried, Android OS does host one feature of the operating system, which is the ability to install apps by directly bypassing the Google Play Store.
Illegal Android Apps – Why do they exist?
Mobile apps allow you to do everything from communicating with people far away and connecting to the social world, to allowing you to handle work and play with ease. To make sure that these apps are up to the user’s standard and do not pose a threat to the private information stored on the user’s device, Google has created the Play Store to keep these apps in line. When you consider the best illegal Android apps out there, you’ll find none of them on the Google Play Store for the simple reason that they seem to either never get approved, or were simply removed due to copyright issues or petitions.
Note: When we speak of the best illegal Android apps available online, we’re talking about the ones that either offer copyright content for free or modify system apps that Google may not be too ecstatic about. None of the apps listed below are actually illegal per se, but due to the nature of these offerings, we ask you to proceed at your own risk, which comes with installing Android apps manually and granting them system permissions.
7 Best Illegal Android Apps
Now that you have understood that illegal Android apps are just the ones that aren’t available officially on the Google Play Store and don’t really mean that using them will land you in prison, it must feel much safer to try them out. We’ve round up the most popular third-party Android apps that aren’t offered on the Play Store, yet actively supported by the community, so go ahead and take look at the list.
The process by which you can install apps on an Android device without the Google Play Store is called sideloading. App developers use the process of sideloading to build and test their apps before publishing them on the Play Store. However, end-users like us can also use sideloading to install APK files directly, without the Play Store facilitating it. We’ve explained sideloading before when it comes to installing cracked apps, where you need to enable “Unknown Sources”. This feature enables you to install APK files directly and is tucked away in the Developers options menu. If you don’t have the option enabled already, here’s how you do it:
- Enable Developers options to feature by going over to Settings – About phone – Build number and tap on it 7 times. You will see the message “You are now a developer!” show up on the screen.
- Head back to the Settings again, where you will be able to view the Developer options screen. Tap on it and scroll down to view the “Unknown Sources” tab.
- Press the switch next to the Unknown Sources tab and confirm by pressing the “OK” button.
With the Unknown Sources features enabled, you will now be able to download and install the best illegal Android apps effortlessly.
Aptoide
One of the oldest names in the world of third-party Android App Stores, Aptoide is possibly the closest TweakBox Android alternative out there. What makes Aptoide different from the usual ones out there is that it not only hosts all of the popular apps that are available on the Play Store but a wide range of apps that aren’t allowed on there. Apps like Showbox which lie in the legally grey area are also hosted on Aptoide, along with some NSFW apps too, but as long you’re cautious and packing an anti-virus app for added protection, there’s a whole world of possibilities for you to discover.
Showbox
In the age of digital content streaming, it may seem like going premium is the only way to live. However, even during such times, there are certain online streaming services that allow you to download movies for free online. Showbox for Android emerged as a provider of all kinds of premium quality content. You could download movies for free online with the Showbox app in HD quality, on your smartphone, tablet, or computer. All of this sounds too good to be true, but it is, however, it surely is not 100% legit. Showbox gives you the ability to download movies for free online and stream content that you’d have to otherwise pay for.
YouTube Vanced
Google may have created the largest free video-sharing platform in the world, but it surely isn’t out of the goodness of its heart. YouTube uses targeted advertisements and subscription-based service called YouTube Music and YouTube Red to rake in funds, while the free version users are stuck without those premium features. YouTube Vanced has been developed as an advanced version of the native YouTube app, which features a built-in ad-blocker into it to keep those pesky advertisements away while allowing for features such as multi-window view and background playback even when the screen is turned off.
zANTI
Ever wondered how susceptible is your local network connection to hacking and data theft, but never had the tools to do so? Now you’ve got zANTI, a security analysis tool developed by the experts in the field of IT communication and network security to access the level of risk. This compilation of network testing toolkit has been packed into a single app, allowing users to discover back-door attacks, brute force network penetrations attempts and so much more. Apart from assessing the damage that your local network system could be open to due to Metasploit, password cracking tools, and so much more, zANTI runs multiple cyber-attack scenarios to help you bolster the system.
Transdroid
Whether you’re a good guy who only uses legal torrents or a member of the pirate ship, we’re not judging. However, you’ll soon realize that most torrent clients for Android lack the depth that the PC torrent clients have. Transdroid is among the apps not on Play Store that you can find but allows you to control remotely. The app comes with support for home servers and seedboxes to manage your premium torrent accounts. You also get remote control features to add torrents, start/stop them and set priorities for almost all the top clients like uTorrent, Vuze, Deluge and more. You can get a barebone version of Transdroid from the Google Play Store.
Viper4Android
For all the audiophiles out there, finding a good equalizer app for Android that actually works can be baffling. However, ViPER4Android has risen as an option that helps you tweak not just the software, but the physical hardware of your device for better sound quality. The app allows you to easily create customizable audio profiles not just for wireless/wireless headphones, but speakers as well. Albeit the sound equalizer is not the most user-friendly, but once you get the hang of it, you can fine-tune the sound system of your Android device to perfection.
AdAway
Mobile devices may not longer pester you with adware and bloatware from their manufacturers, but advertisements continue to be a major source of revenue for almost all of the Android apps. AdAway was created with the intention to take the painstaking issue of advertisement banners and annoying pop-up videos from Android mobile phones and tablets, which improves the user experience. The means by which AdAway does this is by manipulating the “hosts” file in the system, which bars all of the advertisements from connecting to the servers, thus keeping your mobile user experience entirely free of ads.
Best Illegal Android Apps with ExpressVPN
When using some of the apps that have been mentioned above such as Showbox, you will be connected to remote servers to fetch the media content. Depending on where you reside and the ISP of your network connection, you might not be able to view any of the content due to strict copyright protection laws that are in place. Additionally, when using apps such as Aptoide that allow you to install APK files, you need to keep your browsing history under wraps, which is only possible when you take the help of a service such as ExpressVPN.
ExpressVPN has been a favorite among mobile users since it offers an official app across all of the platforms, allowing you to connect to hundreds of remote servers. Not only can you choose servers based in specific regions which also unlock regional services such as Hulu and HBO NOW for non-US based users, but the added assurance of military-grade security protocols for encryption of data ensure that you are never at risk when browsing the internet or downloading the best illegal Android apps with ExpressVPN without the training wheels on the side.
Final Words
The very concept of Android OS was to counter the argument made by Apple with the iPhone, keeping users confined to the norms set by the company. Unlocking the potential of what a smartphone can do, Android OS has been further liberated by the community behind it, made possible due to its Linux roots. Releasing SuperUser admin privileges has been a pivotal point in the history of Android OS, but thanks to the fact that Google itself has made the Android OS far more flexible through dozens of permissions, it has reduced the need for users to root their devices in the first place.
Are you among the brave of heart who will venture out of the bounds of the Google Play Store to try some of these so-called illegal apps on your Android device, or would you rather follow the path and be a good Samaritan instead? Be sure to let us know in the comments section right down below, we’ll be waiting to hear back from you.