# Make Glide APP into "APK" install file - No more Home Screen Mess
**URL:** https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388
**Category:** Ask for Help
**Created:** [October 20, 2020, 10:19pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388 "2020-10-20T22:19:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Amal](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Amal)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2020, 10:19pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388/1 "2020-10-20T22:19:37Z")
Hi Guys, my 1st post here.
But after some research, i found a way around the add to home mess. We can add a install button directly to the app by doing the following:
1. Download the app to your own phone by adding to home screen as usual, you must use chrome browser for this( i will let you why )
2. Once downloaded, you need to download a app sharing app, like Share-it, or App Sharer etc. Use the app to share the application to another phone, your glide app will show-up as an apk file.
3. Once you have that apk file on your other device. Just upload it to any file upload site and create a link to it, which you will use to put as a button in glide app as open link or just share the link directly with users. ( i put as the 1st screen users see, all other tabs are hidden until user clicks Install, on clicking install cell is incremented by 1 and this values is used to unlock the other tabs.
4. On opening the link users can download the apk and get a prompt to install or add to home screen. (reason for using chrome is, most users have chrome installed, if not they will be prompted to download chrome to run the app)
5. More need to worry about users unable to see the add to home screen mess. Not sure if anyone else thought or tried it, but it works 100%.
IOS users should also be able to use Share-it app and do the same.
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### Author:  [@nathanaelb](https://community.glideapps.com/u/nathanaelb)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2020, 11:21pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388/2 "2020-10-21T23:21:17Z")
@Amal
I like your approach of adding a “Install app” button in the app itself.
Question about 4.
It seems like Safari has a 92% market on iPhones over the past 12 months. Would you then ask users what OS they are using, and based on their answer make different “download app” buttons visible?
PS. I couldn’t find the data on Statista, I found statistics instead on Netmarketshare (no idea if the data is reliable).
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### Author:  [@darder](https://community.glideapps.com/u/darder)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2020, 11:37pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388/3 "2020-10-21T23:37:14Z")
I’m afraid there’s no Share-it app for iOS… but it sounds great for Android users…
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### Author:  [@Amal](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Amal)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2020, 10:05am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388/4 "2020-10-22T10:05:45Z")
Hi @nathanaelb,
Unfortunately this solution does not work for IOS. I am still working on finding a solution for IOS and will update it soon.
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### Author:  [@Amal](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Amal)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2020, 10:06am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388/5 "2020-10-22T10:06:57Z")
++update++ IOS currently not supported. Working on a fix!
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### Author:  [@V88](https://community.glideapps.com/u/V88)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2020, 12:55pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388/6 "2020-10-22T12:55:39Z")
Good luck and please keep us informed!
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### Author:  [@Gideon\_Lahav\_Busines](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Gideon_Lahav_Busines)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2020, 5:40pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388/7 "2020-10-27T17:40:06Z")
Keep us posted
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### Author:  [@Jeff\_Hager](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Jeff_Hager)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2020, 5:50pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388/8 "2020-10-27T17:50:48Z")
I imagine your Android solution would require also having to convince all users to enable side loading on their device, or does an APK from a PWA react differently than an APK from a full fledged app?
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### Author:  [@Amal](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Amal)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2020, 6:04pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388/9 "2020-10-27T18:04:07Z")
i tried these with a couple to users, and they were able to install it without any issues. what you are referring to is, normally in apk file install, users are asked to enable unknown sources from setting before installing. This apk did not trigger that prompt, at least in the environment i tested.
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### Author:  [@PanaYoung](https://community.glideapps.com/u/PanaYoung)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2020, 6:43pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388/10 "2020-10-27T18:43:09Z")
To obtain the link, you can upload the APK to Google Drive, since it simulates the installation very well.
PD: They must configure in Google Drive that “Anyone on the Internet that has the link can see the file”.
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### Author:  [@Amal](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Amal)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2020, 6:47pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388/11 "2020-10-27T18:47:00Z")
Uploading to google drive makes the user see another screen with download button, but if you still prefer that then :
Use this to paste your drive link and get user to direct download no extra screen at all 🙂
> **[Home](https://sites.google.com/site/gdocs2direct/home)**
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### Author:  [@PanaYoung](https://community.glideapps.com/u/PanaYoung)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388/12 "2020-10-27T19:01:28Z")
Thank you very much!
An old thank you trick …
If you use an Android mobile device to create your APK, you can add yourself to your contacts and share the APK with yourselves. Ready!
They will already have the APK on their devices.
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### Author:  [@Mauronic](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Mauronic)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2020, 8:14pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388/13 "2020-10-27T20:14:58Z")
There appear to be ways to create an APK out of a PWA and distribute via the play store:
> **[PWA2APK- Convert PWA to APK file - Appmaker.xyz](https://appmaker.xyz/pwa-to-apk/)**
>
> Convert Progressive web app (PWA) to APK file using PWA2APK in one click. Now you can upload your PWA app to Android Playstore using PWA2APK App builder.
> **[PWABuilder](https://www.pwabuilder.com/)**
> **[GoogleChromeLabs/bubblewrap](https://github.com/GoogleChromeLabs/bubblewrap)**
>
> Bubblewrap is a Command Line Interface (CLI) that helps developers to create a Project for an Android application that launches an existing Progressive Web App (PWAs) using a Trusted Web Activity. ...
via [https://medium.com/@firt/progressive-web-apps-in-2020-c15018c9931c](https://medium.com/@firt/progressive-web-apps-in-2020-c15018c9931c)
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### Author:  [@PanaYoung](https://community.glideapps.com/u/PanaYoung)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2020, 8:22pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388/14 "2020-10-27T20:22:40Z")
Hola @Mauronic! En el caso de PWA2APK hay que agregar líneas de código al código fuente de la PWA. Lo que lógicamente no se puede hacer con Glide.
ENGLISH: In the case of PWA2APK, you have to add lines of code to the source code of the PWA. What logically cannot be done with Glide.
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### Author:  [@Amal](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Amal)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2020, 8:27pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388/15 "2020-10-27T20:27:22Z")
hi @Mauronic
I have gone through all of these options, before coming up with this. Once you try to upload your link, it just spins around in circles and doesn’t do anything. I contacted their support and they were clueless.
Appmaker and PWAbuulder are both fails. I have not tried bubble wrap as it a little far feteched for me
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### Author:  [@arshad](https://community.glideapps.com/u/arshad)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2022, 6:20am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/make-glide-app-into-apk-install-file-no-more-home-screen-mess/17388/16 "2022-05-02T06:20:17Z")
Dear
Please check the below post step by step explanation to convert glide app to android apk, android back button issue is fixed in my solution.
[click here](https://java-tech-solutionz.blogspot.com/2022/05/How%20to%20convert%20glide%20app%20to%20an%20android%20apk.html)