Wouldn’t it be nice if your Android automatically keep a backup copy of your application when your install it from Play Store or outside? With this, you don’t have to worry about manually backing-up the APK file of an Android application.

Google Play Store doesn’t let us directly download APK files neither on desktop or phone. When we install an application using Play Sore’s ‘Install’ button, it saves the APK package to a temporary location, installs the APK and then deletes the temporary APK file. Thus, normally we are unable to get the installer file.

The installer file, aka the APK file is sometimes necessary to offline install an application. Some applications have so big size that, if you have limited mobile data or slow internet connection and you face trouble installing them from store. In other cases, you might want to decompile or analyze an APK file or edit its icon or name. An installer file also helps you to send an application to your friend, so your friend doesn’t need to download it from internet.

App Backup & Restore is an application to do the job of auto backup of APK files. When you install an app from Play Store or from other source, App Backup & Restore will automatically make a backup copy of the application’s APK file to a specified location (you can change backup location from Settings).

Features of the App

• Backup and restore apps.
• Auto backup on install (needs to be turned on from settings).
• Multi version backup (you can set how many versions to keep).
• Share an app (APK file) via WiFi or Bluetooth.
• Send APK files via Email.
• Share market link.
• Backup market link fir protected apps.
• Send an APK file to cloud storage services (requires the standalone service apps such as Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. to be installed).

To upload or send a file, tap on an app in Archived tab and choose Send.

Note: It doesn’t backup data files and settings of applications.

Enabling Auto Backup

Open the app, and tap on three vertical dots from top right corner and choose Settings.

Scroll down to bottom area and check the box next to Auto Backup to turn it on.

You can also mark Auto Backup Notify to get notification when an app’s backup is made.

There are other apps like Easy Backup & Restore, App Saver, etc. that has similar purpose, including inbuilt cloud backup. But App Backup & Restore works simply out of the box and probably more reliable. Tell us how you have been backing up of your Android apps.