Obtainium Archives

AppWizard

June 21, 2026

Sideloading Android apps is great — until you have to update them. Here’s my fix

Obtainium is a free and open-source sideload manager designed to simplify the updating process for sideloaded Android applications. Users can add their sideloaded apps to Obtainium’s tracking list after a one-time setup, allowing the app to monitor these sources for updates in the background. Obtainium supports various sources, including GitHub, GitLab, F-Droid, APKMirror, and Uptodown. The app checks for updates every six hours and can either download and install updates automatically or notify the user. Setting up Obtainium involves downloading the APK, adding app source URLs, and ensuring the correct source is used for each app. However, it has limitations, such as relying on HTML scraping for websites without an API and potential API rate limits for GitHub apps. Additionally, Obtainium may have read-only access to certain sites, requiring users to manually update apps in some cases.

AppWizard

May 9, 2026

A review of ‘Obtainium,’ an Android app distributed solely on GitHub that allows you to install, manage, and automatically update apps similar to F-Droid.

Obtainium is a tool designed to streamline the update process for Android applications distributed through platforms like GitHub. It supports over 10 app distribution sites, offers compatibility with various release methods, and allows customizable filtering and settings. Users can extract APK files from HTML and share app settings through data import and export functionalities. To install Obtainium, users can download it from GitHub, IzzyOnDroid, or F-Droid, with a focus on installing via F-Droid. The installation process involves opening the official GitHub repository, tapping the F-Droid banner, and following prompts to install and launch the app. Upon first launch, users must allow notification permissions and adjust battery settings. To add apps, users enter the app source URL and select the appropriate source. Obtainium may request permissions to install unknown apps during installation. The app includes an Import/Export tab for managing app settings and a Settings tab for customizing update intervals, source-specific settings, themes, and app sorting preferences.