Apps not compatible with phone?!?

[Rick-O-Shay]

Hello,

I am quite frustrated. I have a SGH-T499 (Samsung Dart). It is an amazing phone and I love it... however... there are several apps in the Android Market that say, "This app is incompatible with your T-Mobile Samsung SGH-T499."

I know it is not because my phone is not powerful enough, in fact, I have seen an app that I was thinking about buying but when I decided to purchase it, it was no longer compatible. Why?

My phone runs on Froyo 2.2.2

Specifically, one of the apps I want to purchase, is Catan.

Is there ANY way to get this working with my phone? I know very little about rooting, but if my phone was rooted or I had a different version of Froyo would it work? There are other apps that give me the same error....

Thanks!

 

[KaosStorm]

Welcome to AndroidForums.com!

In regards to your issue, it depends on what the developer feels that his app needs to run on any given Android device.

For example, if you don't have a camera or your phone doesn't support live wallpapers, apps that uses these two features won't be available, for you, on the market. On the other hand, sometimes there are apps that happen to be "blocked" for your phone for legal or regional reasons, and there's very few things you can do about that.

For the first case, if you believe that your phone should be able to run the app, you could always get the .apk from some other source and try it out; if the app is a paid one, you can also contact the developer and ask for your phone to be supported on a future update.

Just today, actually, I had a similar problem as yours: I was looking for a replacement for a certain app and I found it, but the market said that it wasn't compatible with my phone; since I didn't saw any particular feature that my phone couldn't handle, I downloaded the .apk from a different source (it is, after all, a free app on the Market) and installed it. It's working pretty damn good so far.

 

[Rick-O-Shay]

Sweet. Thanks for the info.... But what is a .apk?

Hmmm, I downloaded the .apk installer/uninstaller app, however, I am still unable to download the Catan app since it is "not compatible".

I guess I am not sure how to use .apk to get the app I want....

 

[KaosStorm]

What is an .apk? I'll explain it in Windows PC terms.

When you download/get a program for your PC, it normally comes with an executable (and if the program is huge, a whole lot of other stuff), the extension of this executable is, normally, .exe

An .apk is the Android equivalent of an .exe file, it contains all the data necessary to install the app on your phone. To be able to install external apps (that is, apps that you DON'T get from the Android Market) you need to configure your phone into letting you do that. Most phones have that option in Settings > Applications and it looks like "Install 3rd party apps" or "Install external apps" or something of the kind.

With that out of the way, I'm not sure what you mean with .apk installer/uninstaller app; but to get the .apk you want you need to Google it using whatever name the app has and add .apk. You are bound to find a place to download the app to your PC or, if you use your phone browser, directly into your SD

Once again, if the app is free as it is, it's prefectly fine to do what I have told you. If, in the other hand, you're dealing with a paid app, I would STRONGLY recommend you to contact the developer and ask him about support for your particular model; these guys work hard on developing their apps, and it just doesn't feel right to "steal" from them. Be that as it may, the choice is yours.

 

[surgerush]

Are there any trustworthy sites to download these .apk's from? Or do you pretty much hope that it's ok? Or is there any way to check these things when you download from places like that?