Open XAPK File

Why XAPK file format was created

The reason for XAPK file introduction was the 100MB limit of Google Play store which prohibited downloads of installation files of larger file sizes. In order to avoid this limit installation APK file were split into the main APK file and one or two OBB files which contained all additional data which did not fit to main APK file. Google Play store natively supports downloading both APK and OBB files when needed. But when app installation files need to be downloaded from the website or via cloud having to download and copy multiple files may be uncomfortable for users. In order to solve this problem XAPK file format was created to be capable of storing APK and OBB files in one archive. Now instead of downloading several installation files from the website users would have to download only one XAPK file.

But having XAPK file introduced a problem. This format is not natively supported by Android platform and just copying XAPK file to the target device and double clicking on it would do nothing. This issue was solved by 3rd party developers by creating XAPK Installer app. In fact, there are many apps with XAPK installation function available on the internet. The functionality of such apps is quite simple: all they need to do is to unpack the APK and OBB files in XAPK archive, install APK package to the Android operating system and copy the OBB files to the correct folder.

XAPK file in itself is just a ZIP archive which stores APK and OBB files together in one package. You won’t need to know the details of the XAPK file format unless you are a developer and want to write an app which can support this format. As a user all you need to know is that XAPK contains all installation file for the Android application and in order to install it you will need to download XAPK Installer app from the Google Play store or 3rd party website.