Is there an identity split on social media? Perhaps you have two accounts for Instagram and Facebook each so you can easily manage your personal and professional life? Dealing with multiple accounts is easy when it comes to computers, but on Android it’s a whole different story.
There are alternative apps, such as the ones we have for Facebook and Instagram, that let you sign in to multiple accounts, and they’re great. But let’s take Slack or even Dropbox as an example. There’s no way you can sign in with two different IDs if you work in multiple teams. To help myself and our readers, I figured out how to clone an Android app and install two different versions on the same device.
How to copy Android APK files
Let’s see how we can clone an app on Android and run it as two separate apps.
Note: I personally tested this trick on apps like Slack, Facebook and Hike and it seems to work well on them. WhatsApp has strong security and therefore the application cannot be copied. Likewise, there may be other applications that will cause errors during this process. So to be clear, I can’t guarantee 100% results, but it’s worth a try.
Step 1: Download and install APK Editor on your Android. This is an older version of the app that is no longer available on the Play Store, so you’ll have to upload it to your device. The file is stored on my personal cloud storage account and is the same version that works for me. After a clean install, start the app and make sure you see the SD Card and root folder on the app. If you see anything else, navigate to the root folder and hit the home button.
Step 2: Download the Editor Patch APK file and install it. It will overwrite the previous version we just installed and patch everything for the trick to work.
Step 3: Now we will need the APK file of the app that you need to copy. You can download a fresh copy directly to your computer using a browser and then move it to your Android’s SD card, or you can create a backup using ES File explorer and access the files in SD card\backup. Ideally, I prefer the ES File Explorer method.
Before you continue: Using this method you will have exactly two APKs with the same name and there will be no way you can distinguish between them without launching the app. To fix this situation, you can first transfer the APK file to your computer, and then rename and change the icon using this simple app we discussed before.
Step 4: Open the APK Editor app and navigate to the folder where you created the APK file backup. Long press on the file and select the option to Clones. The app will ask you to rename the file and then save it to the SD Card.
Step 5: That’s it, now open the cloned APK file in file explorer and install it manually.
Note: It may take a considerable amount of time to copy the APK file, please be patient. If the program gives you an error, turn it off and try again.
Now you will have the same two apps without any shared memory and thus you can run them as two separate apps. The only thing that can get in your way is the app icon and name.
Conclusion
That’s how you can clone an app on Android and use multiple accounts. As I mentioned, you cannot clone WhatsApp for security reasons, but there are still many situations where this trick can be useful. Try your luck and see if it works on the app you’re trying to clone.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
