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Is is possible to download older versions of Android applications?

Is there some kind of online archive for all versions of Android apps? Like how you can find older versions of some Windows app.

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    The best way to get older version of an app: Contact developer of the app.
    – iOS
    Jun 22, 2012 at 3:05

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The site Freeware Lovers collects freeware Android apps and has old versions for many of the apps they host. (Also for BlackBerry, Symbian, and Palm OS.)

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Some alternative repositories, such as F-Droid, allow you to choose which version you want to download; all versions ever offered are in the repository.

For most other sites, including the Android Market, the latest version is all that is available.

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  • They seem to keep only last 3 versions
    – German Garcia
    Jan 30, 2016 at 19:02
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The safe and correct way to get an older version is contacting the developer. Maybe they will just give it to you or maybe not - there is a reason why they updated it in the first place. Most importantly they will want to know why and you won't get any hacked malware version as is possible from other sources.

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    Yeah they updated it so they could start charging for it, despite the old free version working perfectly fine.
    – Triynko
    Jul 1, 2014 at 20:30
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    Yeah, they updated it only so they could prompt the user with stupid KYC questions (banking) and pretend to comply with stupid laws that have total citizen surveillance, tracking and control as their objective. If I can say no to that kind of bullshitting I will. To do so, my only option at the moment is to keep the current app version or grab an old version from other sources (when "premium" and "trusted" Google Play service is incapable or unwilling to do so). Have the guts to say no and disobey when something is not right! Don't follow the stream of stupidification!
    – Samir
    May 22, 2015 at 11:06
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    While you are right about using trusted sources for installing apps onto ones phone, you must keep in mind that not all changes that are made to an app are for the good. Therefore, there are often very legitimate reasons why someone would want to hold onto an older version. At the very least, users should be given the choice! Not just the choice to update, but the choice to downgrade as well as keep current version. So called "developers" and companies like Google should not be just shoving new apps and versions down our throats, and we as users and consumers just taking it without a blink.
    – Samir
    May 22, 2015 at 11:12
  • You can't change the behavior of an app without the source code. So having only the APK is not enough. If someone wanted to, he could mask a malicious app as a legitimate one. So he could just use the name "bananas.apk" to make you think that it's that game that you love so much. That's one of the oldest tricks in the book. It's highly unlikely that it's the original app but with changed behavior. (With reservation for open source apps whose sources anyone can grab and change.) But if you want to be sure it's safe, just install it in an isolated environment, like a VM or a test phone.
    – Samir
    May 22, 2015 at 11:28
  • @Samir Of course you can change it. Viruses have been changing the executables since the MS-DOS time.
    – Vladimir F Героям слава
    Aug 16, 2020 at 7:24
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APKMirror from "Android Police"

You can find previous versions of some common apps installation files such as Google Play services, WhatsApp, and Google Play Store.

Note that what you may recall as different versions of the same app might be actually listed as two separate apps. For example, Google Calendar and Google Calendar (old) are listed separately.

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I found this site: apkpure

From about:

APKPure.com is a website providing smartphones software downloads founded in 2014 by APKPure Team[...]

[...]We offer one of the most comprehensive collections of Apps, Games, and history version list. All download works guarantee 100% no extra extension needed.[...]

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There is the AppDowner from XDA-Developers, but it requires that you have root access. Here's a quick guide on how to use it: How to downgrade to older version of apps on Android

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I have a tool that can do this [1]. However it is limited, in that you must provide the version number. Here is example getting YouTube version 4123 (October 2014):

googleplay -a com.google.android.youtube -v 4123

I havent found a way to list the available versions, so you would need to find the version number somewhere else.

  1. https://github.com/89z/googleplay
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