APK-only version of Android Play? Easy APK download option?

[canadianvice]

So, for starters: No, I do not want free apps or piracy.

Basically, I have a Android TV box I bought from China, which unfortunately uses a Rockchip SOC. Not a huge problem, except most apps in the standard app store list as incompatible.

However, I know how finicky that system is, and so I've just been using third party websites to get the APKs from google play links. Sure enough, every "incompatible" app I've sideloaded works just fine.

I was wondering if anyone knew of a decent third-party app store that didn't have compatibility filtering and just let you download APKs? I don't need them cracked or anything, I would just prefer not to have to go through the trouble of sideloading every supposedly "incompatible" app, when it's clear most of them actually work just fine.

This thing is rooted, if that helps at all. There used to be a bug where you could spoof your device model to play, but Google shut that hole, so I can't use that now.

 

[captaincharisma]

so you're trying to get an app to connect vital payment information to from an unknown source?

 

[canadianvice]

so you're trying to get an app to connect vital payment information to from an unknown source?

No, why would anyone do something that patently stupid? I know better than to use a rooted, rando chinese Android box for anything involving finances. You will note there are plenty of free apps available on Android, and they can be downloaded without adding any payment information.

Here, maybe this is easier illustrated by describing what I want to do, rather than the intervening stuff.

Let us assume I want to get Angry Birds on this thing. Ordinarily, I would go to the Play Store, find Angry Birds, and click install.

However, due to a purely artificial restriction regarding compatibility, most apps show as incompatible with this TV box. I know from sideloading directly from the APK files this is simply not the case.

Ordinarily, I would need to get the APK for angry birds (via an app on my phone to copy the APK, or an online tool for this) and then move it onto the box, and then manually sideload it. That's annoying. I would prefer to just have some app that can grab what I ask for as an APK and I can opt to install it myself, directly on the device.

However, sideloading every app I need is a royal PITA, so I'd rather have something that just lets me install what I wish and suffer the consequences should it be genuinely incompatible. Ideally with the ease of use that exists in Google Play.

I'm using this thing 99% as a seedbox anyway, but there's a bunch of useful ancillary apps (file managers, torrent clients, etc.) that I would like to be able to load, and ideally in an easier way than I have been.

My question is if anyone knows of an easy way to get APK files to sideload that is relatively safe; Ideally some well-known third-party app that just takes GP links and downloads the relevant APK file. I've been using APKPLZ, but that's via a website... and this thing doesn't work so well with the browser.