The biggest problem with Android is that, unlike iPhones, it is installed on a multitude of phone models. Due to this fragmentation, it is possible that some applications are incompatible with your smartphone .
I think everyone happened to go to the Google Play store to download an app and read the message " This application is not compatible with your mobile phone ".
The most savvy Android users who use the mobile phone without being satisfied with what is offered but personalizing it in all respects, can apply a trick to deceive the Android Market and also install applications that are not compatible with the smartphone model in use .
Update : instead of making changes to the phone, with or without root, it is possible to download the apps as APK files from the PC (or from the phone itself), then transfer to the phone using Google Drive or other cloud services and then manually installing it.
The only thing to do is to activate, in the Android security settings, the permission to install apps from unknown sources, that is, that are not from the Google Play Store.
Not that it is difficult but since you go to touch a system file, to apply this hack, you need to be familiar with Android and, above all, it is required that the mobile phone is unlocked with root permissions (see how to unlock with root Android).
Some applications will not work even after installation and are actually incompatible, but, very often, they work, only that the developer, not having tested it on that model or not wanting to support it, has not listed it among compatible mobile phones.
Among these there are above all the games but also several other apps.
To perform this trick, the mobile phone must have been unlocked with root access and the free X-Plore File Manager application must be installed from Google Play.
ES File Explorer is one of the best File Manager for Android to explore files and folders.
Launch ES File Manager, press on Menu and then put the cross on the " Go to root " option, on " Browse as root " and on " Mount File System ".
Then go back to the list of files and press the UP key, until you reach the / system folder.
Scroll through the files in the System folder until you find the build.prop file.
The build.prop file contains some text strings that identify the model of the mobile phone.
If you edit this file, Google Play and other applications will believe that you are using a device other than the one you actually own .
Before editing this file, it is better to create a backup copy of it and be very careful when editing this file, without changing any lines and no letters that are not specifically mentioned in this post.
If you edit other parts of the file, the phone may stop working.
To make a backup copy, long tap on the build.prop file, select Copy and then navigate to the / sdcard folder and do Paste .
Now you can edit the file: long press on build.prop in the / system folder, select Open As> Text and choose ES Note Editor as an application.
In the text file, scroll down and look for two lines: ro.product.model and ro.product.manufacturer .
You will find it written, for example,
ro.product.model = Wildfire
ro.product.manufacturer = HTC
Then change the phone name and brand, for example:
ro.product.model = Nexus S
Samsung ro.product.manufacturer =
After making this change, touch the menu key and select Save.
To finish, close File Explorer, enter the Settings of the phone, tap on Applications -> Application Management -> All, search for Google Play and delete the data.
Finally restart the device and go to see the change by going to Settings -> About the phone to find out how Android now sees a Samsung Nexus S mobile phone even if it is actually an HTC model.
Then reopen Google Play, accept the conditions and the license agreement and look for the apps that were previously incompatible to install them and see if they work.
This procedure has been successfully tested.
The only problem is finding the exact names of the product models of which I have not found a complete list.
Restrictions on the operating system (so apps for Android 4.0 only) won't work anyway.
For location restrictions and apps that only work in some countries, there was the Market Enabler application which now no longer exists on the Google Play Store.
