Using Multiple Android APKs With ARC Welder

by Alessandro Ebersol (Agent Smith)

Well, now I will discuss about a very cool tip for Arc Welder, the native Android emulator for Google Chrome, and hence, for our PCLinuxOS. As you can see here, usually Arc Welder only allows you to install one APK at a time. The next APK installed removes the previous APK.

But it is possible to install multiple APK's with Arc Welder.

How?

Easy, just follow these steps:

A) In the Google application menu, start Arc Welder.

B) Click on “Add Your APK.”

C) Choose the APK you want to install.

D) Do all the normal configuration process for the Android APK (orientation, screen resolution, tablet or mobile phone.)

E) Now comes the important part that makes the difference: instead of clicking Launch App, click Download Zip.

F) Now the zipped Android APK by Arc Welder should be in the folder /Downloads (or any other that you have set for your downloads).

G) Next, you must open Google Chrome settings, select Extensions, and enable developer mode.

H) Then in your file browser (PCManFM, Caja, Dolphin, etc ...), open the zipped APK package and extract its contents to a folder (can be Chrome_Apks or whatever name you want).

I) In Chrome, Settings > Extensions, click “Load unpacked extension.”

J) In the "Open File" dialog that will follow, point to the folder where you extracted the APK zipped package and it's done. It will add the APK Android as a Google Chrome application from the applications menu, and you can repeat the process as many times as you want, installing as many APK's as you want.

I hope you enjoy, and you should be able to use your favorite APK's on your Android as much in your PCLinuxOS machines.

Until next month, when I will share some more tips on Arc Welder.