Android Question Distributing APKs via Google Drive

[Brian Dean]

In the past I have written apps for friends and distributed them as email attachments, uploading the apk to Google Drive and using the GMail option to send a file via Google Drive. It has worked well, and when downloading the file to their phones friends were able to install the apk directly.

I tried that again today and got this message from Google :

For security reasons, Gmail does not allow you to use this type of file as it violates Google policy for executables and archives.

Is there something that I have overlooked? Has Google restricted this previously available path? Can anyone suggest an alternative but still simple way of distributing a small number of apk updates to a few friends?

 

[peacemaker]

Gmail or Drive ... That's the question.

 

[FrostCodes]

Google has disabled the ability to upload APK or binary files on all their user-facing platforms. This means you can’t upload APK files to platforms like Gmail or Google Drive.

I recommend purchasing your own domain name and hosting (shared hosting works too) to upload your APK files, or sending them through chat apps like WhatsApp or Telegram.

By the way, most new chat apps do not allow uploading APK or binary files.

 

[aeric]

It happens sometimes.
Try upload again as different file name.