How to Enjoy Third Party Apps on Android TV
Are you annoyed of the fact that your favorite app is still unavailable for your Android TV? It had to be this one from all of them, but before exaggerating, let me tell you that you can actually do something to solve this problem. The beauty of the Android platform is that you’re able to download applications from any source, whether it’s the popular Google Play Store, other third party app stores or even from websites like Android Flagship.
To be more precise, you can manually install and uninstall apps as long as there are so many sites that host untouched APKs of popular free apps that can be easily installed on your Android TV.
How can you do that? If you want to enjoy third party apps on Android TV, note that the only problem comes from the fact that you will have to get a File Manager. Android TV does not come with a file manager out of the box, but even if Google decided not to release a stock file manager for Android, there is nothing stopping you from taking one of the free third party File Managers in the Play Store compatible with Android TV.
One of the most popular ones is ES File Explorer and I personally love it as long as it is free and it supports Samba file sharing and FTP protocols. However, you can choose any other different option that you are already used to. Then, just as it happens on your Android phone, don’t forget to enable installation from Unknown Sources. To be able to manually install apps on your Android TV, you have to find your way towards Settings -> Security and Restrictions and scroll down to the Unknown Sources option. Don’t hesitate to tap on the checkbox to enable it.
Where to look for your APK? APKMirror host many Android app APKs and it is perfectly safe, so this is my only recommendation!
Now, downloading APKs becomes a piece of cake. Go the the APK that you have in mind, don’t forget to tap on install and the magic will happen! Up next, you only have to transfer the APK to your Android TV using a memory.
More app guides that you might find useful:
- Android TV Coming as a Media Platform for your TV;
- Enjoy Thousands of TV programs and Movies with Android TV Portal which can be considered Hulu for all those regions where Hulu is not yet supported;
- How to Install Ported Galaxy Note 5 Apps on Galaxy S6 Edge;
- Read this guide and you will see that it is not at al hard to Install CyanogenMod Apps on Any Lollipop Device without Root.
