Can You Hook Up an Android Phone to a Laptop Download Apps?

Connecting to Computer

You can connect your Android phone to your laptop with the included USB cable. When you make this connection, your phone will ask how you wish to connect. If you choose the option as a 'Disk Drive' or 'USB Drive,' you will be able to open your phone like a separate drive to browse files. You can also copy and paste files to and from your SD card, just like you would move files between folders or drives on your computer.

Application Files

When you download an application to your computer, it uses the format '.APK.' After you transfer the file to you SD card, making sure to remember the location, you can disconnect your Android phone from your laptop. Then, you can launch a file manager such as Astro or ES File Explorer to launch the file on your phone. Alternatively, if you have an installer such as AppInstaller on your phone, you can use that to launch the file. Installation will begin directly from your SD card. However, you must already have a file manager installed so that you can open the files.

Application Sites

Neither the Android Market nor the Amazon Appstore provide .APK files for download to your computer. Thus, you cannot hook up your Android phone to your laptop to download applications. However, some third-party application sites allow you to download these files directly. Appolicious and App Brain are two sites that all direct downloads of application files. In addition to this, you may be able to download applications in .APK format directly from the creator's website.

Considerations

If you simply prefer to browser application markets from your computer, you can register your phone so you can wirelessly push application downloads to it. This requires a Wi-Fi or network connection, however. Amazon Appstore and the official Android Market provide this functionality, so you do not have to connect your phone to your laptop with a USB cable. You can even register multiple Android devices with your account to send applications to one or more. When you use the official market or Amazon store, the stores will keep track of applications that you have previously downloaded, even if you uninstall them.