With the recent release of the 10.2.1 update for BB10 devices, BlackBerry smartphones gained the capability to officially run current Android apps through an updated Android runtime, having been updated to Jelly Bean 4.2.2 and subsequently gaining the capability to load Android apps directly from the device.
However, the current methods in place to sideload Android apps to updated BB10 devices can be best described as arcane and confusing to users who aren’t well versed in APK to BAR conversions or have the time to learn how to sideload their favorite Android applications that don’t have native BB10 versions. Enter Snap, a new native BB10 app that allows access to the Google Play Store on BB10 devices. While Snap still requires sideloading the native app to the device, this process is much easier to follow than the aforementioned conversion steps used in earlier builds of BB10 to get Android apps running.
Once configured after being loaded onto the device and having Google Account credentials entered as normal, the app behaves similarly to the actual Google Play client. One caveat is that apps that require Google Play Services support will not work on the current Android runtime installed in the 10.2.1 update, and new app purchases cannot be made through Snap, otherwise most Android apps will work without issues and even purchases and previous downloads will work as they do on other Android devices.
