Category: Hacks

As an Android user, the number one place to get all your applications and software is the Google play store.

This is primarily for its safety. But, there are times when you may need some applications but may not find them on Google playstore.

In such instances, how do you get the apps without having to go through the Google Playstore app?

In this article, we shall guide you through how to download any android app without using the Playstore.

But, before we delve into that, let’s look at some of the reasons why there are some android apps unavailable on the Google playstore.

Why Are Some Android Applications Not Available On Google Playstore?

Google Playstore may look like the home of android applications. But frankly, there are thousands of android applications which are not available on this platform.

So, the big question is: Why?

1.Inability To Pay Developer Fee

You may get to download various applications for free on the Google Playstore. But, apart from Google’s own products on the platform, the owners of every other application you see on the platform had to pay some USD 25.

This may not be really huge for you but for some developers, they don’t see the reason for them to pay this amount just to have their free apps listed on the Playstore.

So, for some funny reasons, they decide to keep their applications away from Google’s Playstore.

2. Google’s Disapproval Of Such Apps

Usually, after getting your developer account with the USD 25, you are entitled to upload as many applications as possible.

But this is only possible if you do things right. If you don’t submit applications which go against Google’s rules and regulations.

So, when you submit your applications, they go to a review process. During this process, Google may either decide to approve your application or throw it out of the window.

For most developers, they already know the rules and regulations governing the use of the Google Play store. So once they realize that their applications may go against the regulations, they keep them away from the store entirely.

Others also submit the applications only to realize later that they go against the rules of the platform.

So, in such situations, the obvious solution is for them to keep the apps away from the Google Play store.

Since we’ve now seen why some applications are kept away from the Google Playstore, it is only appropriate for us to look at how to install such apps on your android phone.

How To Change Your Android Phone Settings To Accept Applications Not On Playstore

To enable your phone to accept and install an external application apart from those on Playstore, you’d have to change your phone’s setting.

So, to do this, kindly follow the steps below:

1. Go to settings in your phone menu
2. Select ‘Apps and notifications’
3. Select advanced
4. Select special app access
5. Scroll down and select ‘Install unknown apps’
6. Select the browser you wish to download the app with
7. Press to turn on ‘Allow from this source’

If the steps above don’t work for you, it means you’re using an Android version lower than 8.0. In that case, you should follow the steps listed below instead;

1. From your menu, go to settings.
2. Select ‘Security’
3. Turn on ‘Unknown sources’

Where To Download The Apps

After successfully turning on your phone’s ability to install apps from unknown sources, the next thing is for you to download your apps and start enjoying.

There is practically a large score of sources for downloading and installing applications on your phone. Some of them are applications on their own and some others are just websites.

Here, we shall look at some of the apps which you can use to download APK files on your smartphone without the use of the Playstore.

APK Mirror

APK Mirror is one of the authentic sites and apps for downloading your favourite android applications free of charge.

In fact, it contains hundreds of thousands of applications. It contains applications available on the playstore and those not available too.

For the most part, the APK Mirror is made of older versions or other versions of some popular apps.

Downloading from this platform is entirely legal and is usually as safe as it may be to download from Playstore itself.

APKPure

APKPure is also an alternative to APK Mirror. The APK Pure app, however, provides more categories and more applications for download. It covers a wide range of popular and newer applications than even the Playstore itself.

If you’re seeking to download photo filters and video editors, then APKPure is a good call for you. It’s filled with lots of photo and video editing applications.

Amazon Appstore

The official Amazon Appstore is also a good repository of some cool android apps which you can easily download on your phone.

The Amazon AppStore works almost the same as the Google playstore, in that, it provides a large database of both free and paid applications.

You can also get to download some paid applications for free using Amazon’s promotions and gift cards.

Like APK Mirror, the Amazon application is very safe.

Conclusion

You don’t have to rely on your Google Playstore all the time for applications. You can download thousands of android applications from other sites and applications free of charge.

In this article, we spoke about some of these platforms which allow you to download android apps, how to set your phone to accept such applications and why some apps are not on the Playstore.

It is also important to note that, there are hundreds of other applications and websites out there for downloading android applications. But due to their open-source nature, they are more than likely to contain malware.

So in your attempt to by-pass Google Playstore in downloading your android applications, always make sure to download from trusted sources.

If you have any questions, comments or reservations regarding this article, kindly let us know in the comment box below.

Please, do well to share this article with your friends and family as well.

Tiktok may be the new video and trends app, Zoom may be the new home for all meetings but Whatsapp still remains what it is. The world’s leading chatting app.

Be you a child, a teenager or an adult, Whatsapp is one application you use every single day, so long as you have a smartphone.

Despite the fact that most users prefer to use Whatsapp for text and video chats, quite a number of them still go for the now better Whatsapp Voice Calls.

Whatsapp voice calls, just like normal phone calls can be for various reasons. For security reasons or for record-keeping sake, you may need to record some of your Whatsapp calls.

You may also read about How To Secretly Record All Your Phone Calls

Unfortunately, Mark Zuckerberg and his team haven’t come up with an in-born feature for recording WhatsApp calls.

However, this shouldn’t be your headache. This article solves this problem perfectly.

In this article, we shall discuss how to record your Whatsapp calls.

How To Record Whatsapp Calls On Your Android Phone

For android users, this ‘all difficult’ task of recording Whatsapp Calls is a little bit easier and more possible.

Your best bet for recording a Whatsapp call on your android phone is by using the Call Recorder – Cube ACR application.

Follow the procedure below to learn about how to use the app to record your Whatsapp calls:

1. Download the Cube ACR Call Recorder application from the google playstore and install it on your phone.
2. After successfully installing the application on your android phone, you need to grant permissions for the application to access your contacts, record your calls and access other parts of your phone. For those using android versions 10 or higher, you may need to grant the Cube ACR recorder, you have to enable app connector permission in your Accessibility settings menu.
3. Open your Whatsapp application after granting all the required access and permission to the Cube app. Make a call to any Whatsapp contact you wish to call. If your App is set up properly, you should see the Cube Recorder Widget on your screen. If it isn’t well setup, you would get an error message on your screen.
4. If you keep getting error messages on your phone, then it’s a problem with your app. To resolve this, open the Cube App and go to recording settings. Under ‘VOIP’ recording settings, turn on ‘Ignore VOIP-Support check’. Then, select ‘Voice Call’ option in the VOIP recording source settings.

Note: The Cube Recording App only works on some android phones so it is likely that this application may not work on your phone. This shouldn’t be a worry to you. Check here for the list of phones that support this application.

How To Record Whatsapp Calls On Your Iphone

Apple is very keen on security and privacy-related issues, especially across its devices.

As such, it is a bit difficult to perform the Whatsapp Call recording functionality on an iPhone. However, it is not entirely impossible. Actually, there is nothing impossible in the computing world.

So here, follow these steps to record Whatsapp Calls on your Iphone:

1. Connect your phone to an Apple Macbook using a lightning cable.
2. For the first time connections, select ‘Trust this computer’ on your phone.
3. Launch Quicktime on your Macbook.
4. Next, choose ‘new audio recording’ under the file menu.
5. Click on ‘record’ in your Quick Time application window.
6. Using the iPhone, call your phone via Whatsapp. Then, click on the ‘add user’ icon.
7. Choose the person whose call you want to record and connect them.
8. Your call will be recorded automatically after connecting the person.

When you’re done with the call, stop the recording in your Quick Time window and save the audio on your Macbook.

Old But Gold

If these methods used above do not work for your phone, you may have to rely on this strategy which has existed for years.

To do this, you first of all need to be in a very quiet room where there is little or no noise.

You must also have an external recorder such as a different phone from the one you’re using to make the Whatsapp call or an audio or mp3 recorder.

1. Call the person whose call you want to record via Whatsapp.
2. Once they answer, but the call on handsfree mode and turn on your sound recording device.
3. Record the whole conversation from a close distance.
4. Save the file on your recorder and send it to your phone later.

Conclusion

There are times when calls must be recorded for personal reasons, security reasons or for record-keeping sake. For any of these reasons, such calls may either be normal phone calls or Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) calls such as Whatsapp calls.

Interestingly, there are apps readily available on most phones for recording voice calls. However, WhatsApp doesn’t come with the in-built feature of recording calls.

So, there is a need for reliance on third-party software for this purpose. In this article, we looked at some ways of recording Whatsapp Calls On your iPhone and Android phones.

We hope this article was helpful to you and that you will share with your friends and relatives.

Kindly do well to leave your comments, views, questions and reservations in the comment box below.

We normally ignore Whatsapp messages when we are too busy to be online to have a long chat. Sometimes we might be interrupted from what we are doing immediately we get online to reply to a chat we don’t want at the said time.

We mostly ignore chats in order to not let our contacts from seeing we are online and dragging us into long conversations. In fact, there are several ways of replying to a chat without being noticed you are online.

There are two ways you can follow to reply to messages without being online. Continue reading to know the steps.

Reply While Offline

When you receive a message you don’t want to reply to lead you in long conversations, there are few things you can do to reply without anyone noticing your online status.

Firstly, disable all connections to the internet be it WiFi or Mobile Network data on your phone. Open WhatsApp and tap on the chat you want to reply to. Write and send your message.

Close WhatsApp and reconnect back to the internet. WhatsApp will automatically send the message without you being online. WhatsApp runs on the background and foreground.

When running background, it is able to process your incoming and outgoing messages, that is why when you are not online and someone messages you, you receive a notification.

Notification Reply

Smartphones running Android 7 or higher, can reply to messages through their notification panel. Once you receive a Whatsapp notification, open the drop-down menu to reply to the message directly without opening the WhatsApp messenger.

Messages will be sent just like you being in the app. Your online status will not show too.

Reply Messages From Lock screen (Android)

You can reply to messages on Android without appearing online. When you receive a notification whiles your phone is on the lock screen, tap on the down arrow of the WhatsApp message you want to reply to.

Tap on reply, and type in your message you want to send. Some phones may demand you to type in your unlock code before you can reply.

The message will be sent without you appearing online.

Reply Messages From Lock screen (iOS)

On iPhone, Swipe left to the message you want to reply to. Tap on the view option, type your message, and press send. Your message will be delivered without you being online.

Conclusion

In some days, we get too busy to stick to our phone in as much we even have to ignore certain messages we receive. Sometimes replying to those messages whiles online will lead to a long conversation.

Some messages might be too important to reply, but going online will open the way for others to chat with you which we want to ignore. In such occasions or instances, we can make use of the solutions in this article to reply to your messages without going online.

Owning and managing your own website is not only exciting but it also comes with a deserving volume of respect and pride.

Whether you are looking to start your new blog, have a website where you can post your portfolio or you are looking to have a website where you can sell your products or services, one thing that comes to mind is Domain.

Your domain name is the unique name that defines your website and so there is virtually not a website without a domain name.

Interestingly, aside from the fact that you have to pay for hosting and website designs, not to talk of some plugins and themes, you mostly have to pay for your domain name too.

This, therefore, makes it extremely difficult for some people to create and own websites – which should not be the case at all.

In this article, we shall show you how to get a free domain name for 1 year.

Using Namesco Free Domain Name

With Namesco, you can get a free .co.uk domain for one year. The steps for using this service are also very simple for everyone to use.

Kindly follow the steps below:

1. Visit Namesco.co.uk
2. Once the page loads, click on ‘Domain Name Search’
3. Type your preferred domain name. Example: Kofidazzie.co.uk
4. Click on ‘search’ to see if it’s available.
5. If you are okay with your domain name, then click on ‘Proceed to basket’. If you are not okay with the name, you can try other alternatives.
6. You’ll be given two options, to either upload your own website or use a website builder to Do it yourself. Select the Website builder option. Don’t worry about the amount you see next to it.
7. Click on proceed to checkout or basket.
8. On the next page, you’ll see two items listed. Next to the Website Builder, you’ll see an amount written. Don’t worry, click on the red X near it. By doing so, you’re removing the website builder option from your purchase.
9. Your total amount will change to ‘Free’ at the bottom.
10. Click on Create account and then you can register your domain name for free!

Using Wix Website Builder

One sure way of getting a free domain name for your website is using the Wix Website Builder.

With this easy-to-use and multiple-clicks website building tool, you can get your free wix subdomain for your website.

However, your domain name would look something like this: Dannykofi.wix.com

Now, let’s look at how to get your free wix free subdomain today.

1. Visit wix.com
2. Sign up for an account
3. Once you’re logged in, click on ‘Design website’
4. On top of the new page, you’ll see ‘Upgrade’, click on it.
5. Select from the list of hosting packages on the next page, the one that fits your business plan and financial stand.
6. Enter your payment details on the next page and checkout.
7. On the next page, you may select any add-ons you wish to use.
8. Make a payment on the next page.
9. You can then search for your new domain on the next page. If it is available, you get to register it for free and set up your website on it.

Note: The payment you made is for hosting and any other add-ons. Your domain name is free of charge.

Using Plugnom

Plugnom.com is an affordable Web Hosting Service provider in Ghana. Once you sign up to any of their yearly host plans, you get a free domain.

Conclusion

Owning your own website doesn’t have to be stressful after all. You can skips the hurdle of buying your domain name by following the options given out in this article.

We hope that this article helps you to get your next domain name for free so you can build that website you so desire to build.

If you know of any other options for getting a free domain name, kindly let us know in the comment box below.

Whatsapp is arguably the world largest instant messaging application with millions of people across the globe using the app every day since its inception about some 8 years ago.

With Whatsapp becoming part of our everyday lives, it has become paramount to many people, the need to keep their chats private and safe at all times.

There are times you have visitors around and you forget to take your phone with you while you’re stepping out. You step out and realise that you’ve left your phone with the visitor and that they could go through your chats and see something unpleasant or some top secret.

This doesn’t have to happen to anyone.

In this article, we shall look at practical ways of ensuring that your Whatsapp chats are kept private and secure at all times.

Manage Your Whatsapp Images And Videos

One of the main ways of ensuring that your Whatsapp chats are safe and secure is for you to manage your Whatsapp images and videos such as your Whatsapp images do not appear in your gallery instantly.

There are two ways to do this. We shall look at both ways shortly.

For iPhone Users

• Go to your Iphone’s privacy settings
• Click on ‘photos’
• Click to ‘uncheck’ the Whatsapp button.

This way, images from Whatsapp will not be directly displayed in your gallery when opened.

For Android Users

For you to achieve a positive result with this method as an android user, you must, first of all, have a file explorer installed on your phone.

• Open your file explorer
• Go to WhatsApp
• Locate the folders named ‘Images’ and ‘Videos’
• Create a file named ‘No Media’ in each of the locations listed above.
• Your phone should skip all images from your Whatsapp chats and refuse to display them directly in your albums.

Locking Your Whatsapp Chats

More than anything else, this is the best way to ensure that your Whatsapp chats are secure and private.

Even though Whatsapp does not have an inbuilt system for locking your chats and the app itself, there are other apps you can use to lock your Whatsapp chats.

You can read about some of those here: The Best Apps For Locking Softwares On Your Android Phone.

Avoid Using Whatsapp Web/ Always sign out after use

The website version of the Whatsapp instant messenger may sound like a replacement for anyone who is hoping to use their PC to chat on Whatsapp.

However, information available to us indicates that the Whatsapp web portal is one of the most vulnerable components of the application.

With Whatsapp web, you need an active Whatsapp account on a mobile phone. During the registration process for Whatsapp Web, you’ll be required to scan a code from your smartphone.

And any other time you wish to login on Whatsapp web, the only passport you need is for your phone to be connected to the internet and for you to open Whatsapp on your mobile device.

Meaning, Whatsapp web is a duplication of Whatsapp application itself.

So anyone who has access to your browser can read your chats while you are chatting live on your phone and this is not good for security and privacy reasons.

So, to prevent this, you need to avoid using Whatsapp web and download the PC application for Whatsapp, in case you want to use it on your laptop.

Conclusion

Whatsapp is a very helpful instant messaging app which I believe almost everyone with a smartphone uses today. To prevent yourself from being exposed to intrusions and safety threats, you should use the method suggested above.

If you think there are other ways of achieving this goal, different from what is written in this article, kindly let us know in the comment box. We would love to hear from you.

There are many times when we see images online especially in groups and on various sites that we wish to verify the source of those images. Before now, most of us only wish there was a way we could achieve that. (more…)