How To Install Incompatible Apps From Android Market For Unsupported Devices

How To Install Incompatible Apps From Android Market For Unsupported Devices

Every now and again there is an app in the Google Play Store that’s either incompatible for your device or not available in your country. Well, thankfully as with Android, there is always a solution for everything but it might not just be as straight forward as you would think. Here’s a little guide on how to get incompatible apps in Google Play to work for your device.

Get started

First, you must make sure that your device is rooted other the app that we’re going to use won’t work. If you haven’t done so already, check formus-XDA
In addition, you must enable “Unknown Sources”. To get these enabled, head to Settings > Security > “Unknown Sources” checkbox.

Enable "Unknown Sources"

Next, you need to get the APK for the App “Market Helper”, which doesn’t exist in the Google Play Store. You can check it out at the XDA-Developers Forum or check out Android Police.
Move the app over to your phone and install it to your device. You can also download it via a mobile browser and install it directly.

Set up “Market Helper”

With the app installed on your device, you can easily change the identity of your device or spoof your country location in the Google Play Store
To use these options, first go to “Select Account”, enter your GMAIL address, and then tap on “Activate”

Markethelper3 — Enable your GMAIL account. / © AndroidPIT

It will then pop up a request to act as a superuser on your device, which you have to agree to.
Here’s where it gets interesting, in the “Select Device”, you can also specify whether you want to pretend to have a tablet or a smartphone in the Google Play Store.
Secondly, you can then choose what type of device you want to spoof. Because I wanted to try out Facebook Home on my Galaxy S2, I choose to spoof a Galaxy S3.

Markethelper5 — Select your device and operator. / © AndroidPIT

Under “Select Operator”, you can then set your country that whichever you’d prefer. For here, I chose to just use United States. As well, you can also choose the carrier that you’d like to have as well. For here, we’ve left it as “AT & T” and then tapped on Activate.

Markethelper6 — More settings in Market Helper. / © AndroidPIT

In the confirmation window, you’ll have the option to head to the Google Dashboard and then update your account with the changes you’ve specified.

Markethelper7 — Login to Google Dashboard to finalize your settings.

Once this is complete, you don’t have to do anything else. Just hit your home button and open up Google Play on your device.
Now, whatever restrictions were in place due to your country, device, device type, or carrier should be lifted.
As we said before, Facebook Home isn’t compatible with the Galaxy S2, but thanks to Market Helper, we can make Google Play think that it is a Galaxy S3.