gplaydl

Download APKs from Google Play right from your terminal. One command gets you the base APK, split APKs (App Bundles), OBB expansion files and Play Asset Delivery packs.

gplaydl downloads through a Google account you add yourself in the Authenticator app. Your account stays private to you, and setup takes about two minutes.

• Base APK, splits, OBB files and asset packs downloaded together by default
• arm64, armv7, x86, x86_64 and Android TV builds, several in one command
• Signs in with your own account, kept private to you and never shared
• Device profiles rotated automatically, both for authentication and for old versions Google only serves to certain devices
• Compressed transfers when Google Play offers them (often 30-40% smaller)
• Every APK verified against the SHA-256 Google Play declares for it
• Language splits on demand, and re-runs fetch only what is missing
• Pure-Python protobuf decoding, no gpapi dependency
• Live progress bars, plus search, info and list-splits for browsing

Installation

Requires Python 3.9 or newer.

pip install gplaydl

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/rehmatworks/gplaydl.git && cd gplaydl
pip install .

First-time setup

You will need any Android phone for a couple of minutes, and a spare Google account to add.

1. Install the gplaydl Authenticator app (source) on the phone. It is not on Google Play, so Android will ask you to allow the install.
2. Sign in with a spare Google account. Prefer a throwaway over your main one: Google sometimes restricts accounts it sees on unofficial clients. The account stays private to you and is never shared with anyone.
3. Open Link gplaydl in the app, then run this on your computer and type in the code it shows:

gplaydl link

Done. Every download now goes through your own account:

gplaydl download com.whatsapp

Your Google password and 2FA codes never leave the phone; the app uploads only the resulting Play token. You can remove an account in the app whenever you like, and if you skip gplaydl link, the first command that needs it will walk you through the same steps.

Quick start

gplaydl link                    # once, with the code from the app
gplaydl download com.whatsapp   # base APK + splits + OBB/asset packs

Commands

Every command takes -d/--dispenser to pick a dispenser and --arch for the device architecture.

link

Pairs this machine with the dispenser. Run it once, or again to re-link.

gplaydl link                              # asks for the code interactively
gplaydl link --code ABCD-EFGH             # or pass it directly
gplaydl link -d https://your.dispenser    # link to a self-hosted dispenser

The key lands in ~/.config/gplaydl/config.json. For containers and CI, set GPLAYDL_API_KEY instead of linking interactively.

If you added more than one account in the app, pass --email you@gmail.com on auth or download to use a specific one. Without it, gplaydl rotates through the accounts you added.

auth

Gets a Play token and caches it. You rarely need to run this yourself; the other commands fetch and refresh tokens on their own.

gplaydl auth                              # default (arm64)
gplaydl auth --arch armv7                 # older 32-bit devices
gplaydl auth --arch x86_64                # emulators / desktop
gplaydl auth --clear                      # forget all cached tokens

Tokens live in ~/.config/gplaydl/auth-{arch}.json and refresh automatically before they expire.

download

Fetches the base APK, every split APK, and any extra files unless you opt out.

gplaydl download com.whatsapp                # everything
gplaydl download com.whatsapp -o ./apks      # custom output directory
gplaydl download com.whatsapp -a armv7       # ARMv7 build
gplaydl download com.whatsapp -a arm64,armv7 # several architectures at once
gplaydl download org.videolan.vlc -a x86_64  # emulator / desktop build
gplaydl download com.google.android.katniss -a tv  # Android TV build
gplaydl download com.whatsapp -v 231205015   # specific version code
gplaydl download com.whatsapp -l de,fr,zh-CN # extra language splits
gplaydl download com.whatsapp --no-splits    # skip split APKs
gplaydl download com.whatsapp --no-extras    # skip OBB / asset packs
gplaydl download com.whatsapp --dm           # also fetch the .dm metadata

Downloads are verified: the base APK and every split are hashed while they stream in and checked against the SHA-256 that Google Play declares in the delivery response, so a truncated or corrupted file fails loudly instead of failing later at install time.

Re-runs are incremental. A file that already exists and matches its declared hash is skipped, so running the same command again with an extra architecture (-a arm64,armv7) or more languages (-l de,fr) downloads only the missing splits into the same directory -- and a corrupted file is noticed and fetched again.

--dm additionally fetches the DEX metadata file ({package}-{vc}.dm, a baseline profile plus vdex) that the Play Store installs alongside the base APK to speed up first launch. It is optional; append it to adb install-multiple after the APKs if you want it.

Old version codes are served by Google only to devices it considers compatible: 32-bit-only APKs are refused for 64-bit-only profiles, and Android 14+ profiles are not served APKs targeting very old SDKs. When that happens, gplaydl retries automatically with low-SDK multi-ABI device profiles until Google agrees to deliver.

Apps that are invisible to phone profiles altogether (Android TV exclusives like com.google.android.katniss, or apps limited to one ABI family) are found the same way: gplaydl rotates through one device of each kind — TV, then each ABI family — before giving up. Pass -a tv to skip straight to a TV profile, or run gplaydl auth --arch tv if you just want a TV token (~/.config/gplaydl/auth-tv.json).

Install a split build on a device by naming the app's own files, e.g. adb install-multiple com.whatsapp-231205015*.apk. (Avoid a bare *.apk when other APKs sit in the same directory: adb refuses sessions that mix packages or contain the same split twice.)

Want a single APK instead of splits? Google Play has no universal APK for App Bundle apps -- every client, including the Play Store itself, receives the base plus config splits and installs them as one session. The base APK alone will not run (its native libraries live in the config.<abi> split). If you truly need one file, merge the splits with a tool like APKEditor (APKEditor m -i ./apks); note the merged APK must be re-signed, so it will not receive updates on top of the Play-signed install.

info, search and list-splits

gplaydl info com.whatsapp                 # version, developer, rating, downloads
gplaydl search "file manager" --limit 5   # find apps by name
gplaydl list-splits com.whatsapp          # see splits without downloading

Multiple accounts and purchased apps

You can add several accounts in the app. By default gplaydl rotates through them; pass --email to pick one, which is also how you download apps tied to a specific account:

gplaydl download com.example.paid --email you@gmail.com

A word of caution before adding an account you care about: Google can rate-limit, lock, or restrict accounts it sees on unofficial clients. It is uncommon, but it happens, which is why a throwaway account is the safer choice.

Self-hosting

The dispenser is open source and runs anywhere Go and Postgres do. Host your own for a team or just for yourself:

1. Follow the dispenser deployment guide.
2. In the Authenticator app, point Settings → Server at your instance and add accounts.
3. Link gplaydl against it: gplaydl link -d https://your.dispenser

Architecture support

Pass several at once to download with a comma: -a arm64,armv7. The base APK is shared where possible and per-architecture splits (or separate builds, for apps that publish one APK per ABI) land next to each other.

How it works

1. Authenticate. The dispenser mints a Play token from one of your own accounts and hands it back, trying device profiles in turn until one is accepted.
2. Look up. App metadata (version, size, split list) comes from Google Play's protobuf API.
3. Purchase. Free apps are "purchased" to authorise the download; the delivery token Google returns is passed along to the delivery endpoint.
4. Download. Base APK, splits, OBB files and asset packs stream in parallel from Google's CDN, using gzip-compressed transfers when offered.

Upgrading from 3.x

gplaydl 4 drops the shared community pool: downloads now go through a Google account you add yourself, kept private to you. Add an account in the Authenticator app and run gplaydl link once after upgrading. (Older 2.x releases borrowed anonymous tokens from Aurora Store; that path is gone.)

License

MIT. See LICENSE.