We are seeking a reliable method to get the .apk file for any arbitrary application that may currently exist on Google Play store. ("legit" reasons may be e.g. to later restore to application v8 even if only application v11 is available to public).

I am not aware of any utility that can do this, so one approach might be to capture all packets which cross your wireless network to your Android device, like when the user installs an app from Play store. So we want to see if it's possible to capture all .apk files downloaded to the Android device upon user install from Play.

1. which wireless capture utility should you use (e.g. pcap?), and should it be run from your Android or some other machine?
2. how do you reassemble a .apk file from a sequence of frames?
3. Is there any encryption of data that would prevent the capture of the .apk file?

We are seeking a reliable method to get the .apk file for any arbitrary application that may currently exist on Google Play store. ("legit" reasons may be e.g. to later restore to application v8 even if only application v11 is available to public).

I am not aware of any utility that can do this, so one approach might be to capture all packets which cross your wireless network to your Android device, like when the user installs an app from Play store. So we want to see if it's possible to capture all .apk files downloaded to the Android device upon user install from Play.

1. which wireless capture utility should you use (e.g. pcap?), and should it be run from your Android or some other machine?

2. how do you reassemble a .apk file from a sequence of frames?

3. Is there any encryption of data that would prevent the capture of the .apk file?

4. Is there an easier way to get an .apk? Tried the emulator but it doesn't work for all apps. adb backup gives a compressed .ab file, but we want the .apk itself in extracted form, and not buried in some .ab compressed file.