Decompile .apk in Android [duplicate]

Question

I would like to decompile and recompile an .apk in Android (I want to gain access to the Android Manifest of some apps). I know the APKTool, but I want to know if it's possible to decompile an apk in Android (decompiler as an Android App).

Answer 1

Getting at the manifest is easy. Change the extension from .apk to .zip and extract the manifest. The majority of the time, it's left intact and parsable. In the case that it's not, there are plenty of free, open-source tools that you can use. APKTool is a great one to use as well. Taking a look at the source code can give you a better idea on how to achieve this, and then you can implement it in the Android environment.

Answer 2

Shameless plug, I just created an open-source package that manages the APK decompilation process at https://github.com/lxdvs/apk2gold.

apktool decompiles to Smali; my package, apk2gold, will decompile to Java.