- About APK Editor
- Examples of How to Use It

1. Modify App Name
2. Beauty UI: Change Background Image
3. Remove Ad
4. Make an App can Move to SD Card
5. Remove Unwanted Permissions

- About Issues

APK Editor is a super tool that can hack apk files to do lots of things for fun. It can help us to translate strings, replace icons, redesign layouts, remove ads, remove limitation in free version, etc. What it can do depends on how you use it. However, to use it well, we need a little bit professional skills.

To get started with it, just open an apk file either from a folder or installed apps. It will display some editable information inside the apk. Make some changes as you want, and then click the save button in the upper right corner. In following part, I will give you some examples. For convenience, I will take 'APK Creator' as the target apk file. (APK Creator can be downloaded from HERE)

Example 1: Modify App Name
(1) Select target app by clicking at 'Select Apk from App', and then select 'APK Creator'
And then click at 'Full Edit'
(2) There are 3 tabs in the editing activity, 'String' tab is selected by default, input 'creator' to search the target string item, and then matched items will be shown:
And then click at the item to change it to your favorate string. For example, here we change it to 'App Creator'
(3) Click save button in the upper right corner. After a while, we will be told that the modified apk is in some place:
(4) Modified apk can be installed from file explorer. (But please note that the original app should be uninstalled before the installation, as the apk is resigned with another key)

Example 2: Change Background Image
(1) Select target app by clicking at 'Select Apk from App', then select 'APK Creator', and then click at 'Full Edit'
(2) Click 'Resource' tab after editing activity shown, and then enter 'layout' folder by clicking at the item. Click at 'activity_main.xml':
After 'activity_main.xml' is opened, look into it and you will see the background image is 'bg':
(3) Return to 'res' folder, and then input 'bg', uncheck TXT item, then click at search icon to search files which contains 'bg':
(Please note: when TXT icon is checked, it means to search files which contain input text in file content; otherwise means to search files which contain input text in file name)
(4) After search result shown, find the file name like 'bg.jpg', 'bg.png', remember that path and browse to main editing page to replace it:
Here we browse to res/drawable folder, and long click at 'bg.jpg' to replace it:
NOTE: Please do not select a big file, like directly from camera directory.
(5) After image replace, click at 'save' button in the upper right corner. After a while, we will be told that the modified apk is in some place.

Example 3: Remove Ad
(1) Select target app by clicking at 'Select Apk from App', then selecting 'APK Creator', and then click at 'Full Edit'.
(2) Click 'Resource' tab after editable resource shown, and then enter 'layout' folder by clicking at the item. Click 'activity_main.xml' and it will show the content of activity_main.xml. Scroll to the last line, change
layout_height="wrap_content"
to:
layout_height="0dip"
And click save icon in the bottom to save the modification.
(Please note this just make the ad on main page invisible, but it's similar for other pages)
(3) For interstitial ad, please remove the AdActivity in AndroidManifest.xml:
(4) After all the modifications, click save button in the upper right corner. After a while, we will be told that the modified apk is in some place.

Example 4: Make an App can Move to SD Card
(ONLY available in pro version)
(1) Select target app by clicking at 'Select Apk from App', then selecting 'APK Creator', and then click at 'Full Edit'.
(2) Click 'Manifest' tab, and then click at the line of manifest (Generally should be line 2)
(3) Click at '+' icon to add a key and value (android:installLocation="auto", refer to the following graph), and then click 'OK'; when return to previous dialog, click 'Save'
(NOTE: you could change 'auto' to 'preferExternal')
(4) Click save button in the upper right corner. After a while, we will be told that the modified apk is in some place.

Example 5: Remove Unwanted Permissions
(ONLY available in pro version, here we will demonstrate how to remove internet permission)
(1) Select target app by clicking at 'Select Apk from App', then selecting 'APK Creator', and then click at 'Full Edit'.
(2) Click 'Manifest' tab, and then click at the lines of uses-permission (Should around line 3-5). Find out the line which contains the name of "android.permission.INTERNET".
(3) Long click at the line, it will prompt a dialog like:
(4) Click at 'Delete this Line' menu.
(5) Click save button in the upper right corner. After a while, we will be told that the modified apk is in some place.

Reverse engineering is a challenge job, please note:
(1) In "Resource"/"Manifest" tab, you could try long clicking for more operations.
(2) Please avoid using it to modify big apk files, as it may consume lots of CPU and memory resources which is beyond device's ability.
(3) We do NOT guarantee that it can edit all the apks.
(4) The modified apk may not work, use it at your own risk.