Portable software for Android?

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webfork
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Portable software for Android?

#1 Post by webfork »

Most of what we've focused on with Android is the possibility of setting up a portable emulator for Android, but this assumes you're still running Windows underneath. What about running portable programs for Android on Android? For example, I certainly wouldn't mind installing an SD card into my phone and being able to have instant access to all my files and applications without some lengthy and tedious sync-up process.

Unfortunately, the closest I've seen is the ability to setup an internal storage card to function as a program storage destination.

Caveats:
  • This is tied to an individual device and an individual card (it's actually encrypted)
  • Android can actually reject the card if it judges the media isn't fast enough to use
Despite this, it suggest a possible route portable software might work for Android devices in the future either via an system tweak, OS fork, or otherwise. At which point we might have PortableAndroidFreeware.com or something similar.

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Source: https://fossbytes.com/android-sd-card-i ... e-storage/

Related: Running Android apps natively

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joby_toss
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Re: Portable software for Android?

#2 Post by joby_toss »

Does Android use something like the Registry in Windows (no idea how Android works)?

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Midas
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Re: Portable software for Android?

#3 Post by Midas »

From what I gather, Android apps are mostly self-contained, the APK package format is really just a ZIP archive with needed files and metadata.

OTOH, portability is more complicated, since Android is basically Linux and program data gets scattered all over the file system (and even to parts an unprivileged user has no access to). Add to that the fact that a lot of those apps are Java dependent or mere webpages repacked.

And yes, I am quite sure Android has something akin to the Windows registry -- it is used at least for program permissions...
  • Image
Last edited by Midas on Tue May 02, 2017 3:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Andrew Lee
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Re: Portable software for Android?

#4 Post by Andrew Lee »

If you are really AR about it, your best bet is probably a tool like Titanium Backup or something similar.

I used to use Titanium Backup, but have simply stuck with the default Android restore-from-cloud thing for my most recent 2 phones.

The trick is to setup the phone with your Google account and just leave it there for half-a-day for all the restoration to take place. If you are too anxious to mess with the phone, it may break the restoration process.

Most major apps now also use the latest Android API to backup the settings to the cloud, so you get your settings back with the app. However, messages (SMS, Whatsapp etc.) still require separate backup (or backup to Google Drive in the latter case). Launcher settings (eg. Nova Launcher) also needs manual attention to backup/restore from the cloud.

It could be easier, but I gotta say a lot of progress has been made since the earlier days.

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Midas
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Re: Portable software for Android?

#5 Post by Midas »

I just recalled something that might be of interest here -- bear in mind I haven't tested it, so YMMV...
  • [url]http://appimage.org/[/url] author wrote:AppImage: Linux apps that run anywhere
    "As a user, I want to download an application from the original author, and run it on my Linux desktop system just like I would do with a Windows or Mac application."
    "As an application author, I want to provide packages for Linux desktop systems, without the need to get it 'into' a distribution and without having to build for gazillions of different distributions."

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