How do I get an apk file from an Android device?

Steps to Download APK from Device to Desktop

A) Make sure that your running (emulator/real Device). To check use this command

adb devices

B) Select all the available package list installed in your device. You can use grep command to select the specific package you intend to download.

adb shell pm list packages
adb shell pm list packages -f -3

Output (List of available packages )

package:/data/app/com.example.mytestapplication-sOzKi5USzfbYLPNDmaaK6g==/base.apk=com.example.mytestapplication
package:/data/app/com.example.myapplication-nd1I4FGnTZnQ9PyRbPDHhw==/base.apk=com.example.myapplication

C) Copy the package (which you like to download) from the above link. Form our case I choose this (com.example.myapplication) package

Syntax : adb shell pm path [your_package_name]
Command: adb shell pm path com.example.myapplication

Output

package:/data/app/com.example.myapplication-nd1I4FGnTZnQ9PyRbPDHhw==/base.apk

D) Finally, To download APK from your (emulator/real device)

Syntax : adb pull /data/app/[your_package_name]-1/base.apk  [your_destination_path]
Command: adb pull /data/app/com.example.myapplication-3j4CVk0Tb2gysElgjz5O6A==/base.apk /Users/$(whoami)/Documents/your_apk.apk

Example: Trying to pull this CertInstaller.apk file in your local machine ( Mac )

adb pull /system/app/CertInstaller/CertInstaller.apk /Users/$(whoami)/Documents/APK/download_apk/

E) Confirm in your local directory

ls -la /Users/$(whoami)/Documents/

One liner which works for all Android versions:

adb shell 'cat `pm path com.example.name | cut -d':' -f2`' > app.apk

1. Open the app you wish to extract the apk from on your phone.

2. Get the currently opened app with:

   adb shell dumpsys activity activities | grep mFocusedActivity
   

3. Get the path to the package name

   adb shell pm path <packagename.apk>
   

4.Copy the path you got to the sdcard directory

    adb shell cp /data/app/<packagename.apk> /sdcard

5.Pull the apk

    adb pull /sdcard/base.apk

Edit

If step no 2 doesn't work use this:

adb shell dumpsys window windows | grep mCurrentFocus

I got a does not exist error

Here is how I make it works

adb shell pm list packages -f | findstr zalo
package:/data/app/com.zing.zalo-1/base.apk=com.zing.zalo

adb shell
mido:/ $ cp /data/app/com.zing.zalo-1/base.apk /sdcard/zalo.apk
mido:/ $ exit


adb pull /sdcard/zalo.apk Desktop

/sdcard/zalo.apk: 1 file pulled. 7.7 MB/s (41895394 bytes in 5.200s)

No Root and no ADB tools required method. Install MyAppSharer app from the play store.

I really liked all these answers. Most scripts to export and rename all of them were written in Bash. I made a small Perl script which does the same (which should work both in Perl for windows and linux, only tested on Ubuntu).

This uses ADB: https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/adb

download-apk.pl

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
# Automatically export all available installed APK's using adb
use strict;
print "Connect your device...\n";
system("adb", "wait-for-device");
open(my $OUT, '-|', 'adb', 'shell', 'pm', 'list', 'package', '-f');
my $count = 0;
while(my $line = <$OUT>) {
        $line =~ s/^\s*|\s*$//g;
        my ($type, $path, $package) = $line =~ /^(.*?):(.*)=(.*)$/ ? ($1,$2,$3) : die('invalid line: '.$line);
        my $category = $path =~ /^\/(.*?)\// ? $1 : 'unknown';
        my $baseFile = $path =~ /\/([^\/]*)$/ ? $1 : die('Unknown basefile in path: '.$path);
        my $targetFile = "$category-$package.apk";
        print "$type $category $path $package $baseFile >> $targetFile\n";
        system("adb", "pull", $path);
        rename $baseFile, $targetFile;
}

1. Make sure adb(.exe) is in your path or same directory
2. Connect your phone
3. Run download-apk.pl

The output is something similar to:

# ./download-apk.pl
Connect your device...
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
package system /system/app/YouTube/YouTube.apk com.google.android.youtube YouTube.apk >> system-com.google.android.youtube.apk
5054 KB/s (11149871 bytes in 2.154s)
package data /data/app/com.ghostsq.commander-1/base.apk com.ghostsq.commander base.apk >> data-com.ghostsq.commander.apk
3834 KB/s (1091570 bytes in 0.278s)
package data /data/app/de.blinkt.openvpn-2/base.apk de.blinkt.openvpn base.apk >> data-de.blinkt.openvpn.apk
5608 KB/s (16739178 bytes in 2.914s)
etc.

Yet another bash script (i.e. will work for most unix-based systems). Based on the answer by Pedro Rodrigues, but is slightly easier to use.

Improvements over Pedro's version:

1. Original approach did not work for me on Android 7: adb pull kept complaining about no such file or directory while adb shell could access the file. Hence I used different approach, with temporary file.
2. When launched with no arguments, my script will just list all available packages. When partial package name is provided, it will try to guess the full package name. It will complain if there are several possible expansions.
3. I don't hardcode destination path; instead APKs are saved to current working directory.

Save this to an executable file:

#!/bin/bash
# Obtain APK file for given package from the device connected over ADB

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
    echo "Available packages: "
    adb shell pm list packages | sed 's/^package://'
    echo "You must pass a package to this function!"
    echo "Ex.: android_pull_apk \"com.android.contacts\""
    exit 1
fi

fullname=$(adb shell pm list packages | sed 's/^package://' | grep $1)
if [ -z "$fullname" ]; then
    echo "Could not find package matching $1"
    exit 1
fi
if [ $(echo "$fullname" | wc -l) -ne 1 ]; then
    echo "Too many packages matched:"
    echo "$fullname"
    exit 1
fi
echo "Will fetch APK for package $fullname"

apk_path="`adb shell pm path $fullname | sed -e 's/package://g' | tr '\n' ' ' | tr -d '[:space:]'`"
apk_name="`basename ${apk_path} | tr '\n' ' ' | tr -d '[:space:]'`"

destination="${fullname}.apk"

tmp=$(mktemp --dry-run --tmpdir=/sdcard --suffix=.apk)
adb shell cp "${apk_path}" "$tmp"
adb pull "$tmp" "$destination"
adb shell rm "$tmp"

[ $? -eq 0 ] && echo -e "\nAPK saved in \"$destination\""

Simplest one is: Install "ShareIt" app on phone. Now install shareIt app in PC or other phone. Now from the phone, where the app is installed, open ShareIt and send. On other phone or PC, open ShareIt and receive.