Mime type for Android apps | Johan Driessen

Mime type for Android apps

I recently got an Android phone (a HTC Hero, to be specific), and of course I felt the need to develop applications for it. I have a few in mind, and I’m sure I will dwell on that in upcoming blog posts. One thing, however, I learned immediately: In order to get the phone to install your app from a web server, you need to have the correct mime type for it.

It turns out that the correct mime type for an .apk file is

application/vnd.android.package-archive

You also need to change the settings to allow installation of programs that doesn’t come from Android Market. This setting is found in* Settings > Program, and is probably called “Unknown sources*” in English (it is definitely called “Okända källor” in Swedish).