App or not. They seem to have done a pretty good job with that, considering we heard from users that had converted apps installed on their PlayBook and they had no idea that the apps weren’t native. After all the questions we had sent in, I decided that I would take a bit of time to explain the Android App Player and hopefully help some of you understand it better.
First of all. There isn’t a single Android App available in BlackBerry App World. There has never been any and I imagine there never will be. That might add a little bit more confusion at first, but it’s actually pretty simple.
Android apps are APK files. Or Android application package file. This is the file format used to distribute and install software onto the Android operating system. APK files are made by compiling a program written for Android and all the individual parts of the application are packaged into this one APK file. All BlackBerry PlayBook apps are BAR files. They are made the same way as a APK file is for the most part, but they aren’t the same thing. So technically there are no Android apps in App World.
What RIM has done is make it very easy for Android developers to convert and sign their apps so that they will work on the BlackBerry PlayBook. The process of converting a Android APK file to a BlackBerry BAR file takes less than 30 seconds in most cases. Once converted and signed these apps still go through the same submission and testing process as native PlayBook apps do. The only difference is they run inside Android App Player, which is needed mostly because of the different ways users interact with applications on the two platforms. On Android you have buttons. On the PlayBook you have gestures that control pretty much everything. With Android App Player RIM did the hard part for Android developers. Instead of each individual app needing changed by the developers to make your gesture register as a button press it happens automatically.
Conclusion, If you see an app that sounds good in App World download it. Try it out. With most of the apps you wont know if it is a port until you’ve launched it for the first time.