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  • Modify Android Application ID (package name) on Windows

    From Marion@21:1/5 to All on Sun Mar 23 21:34:05 2025
    XPost: comp.mobile.android, alt.comp.os.windows-11

    There are free Windows programs which apparently "clone" or "edit" APKs.
    <https://qwertycube.com/apk-editor-studio/>
    <https://apktool.org/docs/install/>
    <https://adbappcontrol.com/en/>
    <https://clonemy.app/>

    Has anyone on these two newsgroups ever used those cloning/editing tools?

    ================
    My personal situation is the following with respect to automatic updates:
    a. I have the last known good version of an APK on my non-rootable Android
    <https://tinyurl.com/pulsesms>
    b. Since I don't have the Google Play Store app, the APK never auto-updates
    c. Good! That's exactly how I want things to work for that specific APK

    However, others in my family have the Google Play Store app installed.
    And, of course, it's set up to NOT auto-update too.
    But it still "checks" for the updates - and nags them to update.

    Seems to me the simplest way to stop updates is to get the Google Play
    Store to stop checking for updates - but I can't seem to find that option.

    Every day the Google Play Store tells them to update the app, and usually
    it tells them to update all the apps that need updating, en masse.

    So they update the app by mistake <xyz.klinker.messenger, 5.4.6.2816>
    Name: pulsesms_5.4.6.2816_xyz.klinker.messenger_lastknowngoodversion.apk
    Size: 23847875 bytes (22 MiB)
    SHA256: F83E0264EFEDF98773D22B658B932A023F4CE912C11FA5F8094AE322346944FF

    And then I have to delete it. And re-install that last known good version.
    <https://mobile.softpedia.com/apk/pulse/5.4.6.2816/>

    Which is a pain.
    But maybe there's a clever way to stop these Google update shenanigans?

    Since Google Play Store either keys off the unique Package Name or, more likely, the unique Application ID (in the build.gradle file), one option is
    to clone the package and try to modify that application id & re-install.

    That's where the Windows open source programs above might come in handy.
    Has anyone (who is non-rooted) on this newsgroup ever done that?
    1. Clone an Android package to an APK on Windows
    <https://tinyurl.com/pulsesms>
    2. Modify just the unique Application ID <xyz.klinker.messenger>
    3. Re-install that now-modified APK back onto Android

    Can you provide advice on how you managed that rather useful feat?
    --
    Yes, I'm aware. One out of ten-thousand people (or more) will be able to
    even understand what I'm asking - but I ask just in case he's on here.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)