In technology in general and Android in particular, everything is done to move forward: updating applications is simple, but downgrade or revert to previous versions it’s embarassing. Moreover, on Android you can’t even: instead you have to uninstall the app and reinstall it.
There are technical reasons for this, but if you continue you need to revert to a previous version of an app without losing your data it is possible to do so through an Xposed module which as such will require you to have Magisk or similar on your mobile.
How to Downgrade an Android App
Let’s say you’re using an app that’s great in version 1.0, but turns into a little monster in version 2.0. You update, the application migrates your data to the new version and from you will not be able to revert to the previous version
Android directly gives you an error if you try to install an older version of an app than the one already installed, so the only way to do that is to uninstall the app first, losing your data if it’s not not saved in the cloud or if you have a way to export it first. There is a way to solve it that can help you in some cases, although it has a big but: needs you have Xposed Framework running on mobile.
There are several ways to have the Xposed Framework on mobile, although the most common is to have Magisk and install a Magisk module that emulates the regular Xposed Framework. There are many: LSPosed, EdXPosed, Riru, Taichi. The traditional way to install Magisk on mobile is by root or from a custom recovery (which also usually requires root). We we recommend LSPosedwhich works just fine, although any other alternative would probably work for you.
With LSPosed ready, you will need the XDowngrader module, by the same author of WaTweaker. You can download it from this Xposed Framework modules repository. It is very light and installs like any other application. After installing it, LSPosed itself (or similar) will notify you that the module is not active and by tapping on the notification you can activate it. If it does not appear, you can always open LSPosed and activate it: it will appear in the mods.
The best thing about XDowngrader is that You do not need to do anything else: This module allows you to install older versions on top of older versions. When you try to install the older version, you’ll see the usual Do you want to install an update for this app? message, but the big difference is that now it won’t give you an error when installing it.
XDowngrader removes Android’s checks against installing older versions, so you can install an older version on top of a newer one, although this does not guarantee that the application will work. After all, the restriction to be made demote it’s there for a reason: the old version might not recognize your data if it changed the way it saves it.
With XDowngrader we installed WhatsApp 2.20 on WhatsApp 2.22 without problems
Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about it, because Android apps are ready to migrate their data to newer versions, but not to migrate to older versions. Therefore, the trick will only serve you to in applications that do not modify your data from one version to another. Otherwise, be prepared for the app to crash, crash, or complain that its data is corrupt.
