How to get android application name from apk file

Question

How do I get the android application name from a apk file programatically outside an android environment? I have tried parsing androidmanifest.xml but it only shows the package name ( which may not be very informative at times)

Answer 1

If you are using Linux, this command will give you the application name:

aapt dump badging your.apk | sed -n "s/^application-label:'\(.*\)'/\1/p"

You'll have to install aapt first.