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Installing SideSuite apps

Scan one code and every SideSuite app is in your library, ready to install and updating itself from then on. Two other routes work too, if you would rather.

Why it works this way

The SP-01 is de-Googled, so there is no Play Store. Apps arrive the way everything else on this phone does: a signed file you install yourself, or an app pack you add to the Library app that came with the phone.

Every SideSuite release is signed with the same key, and each app’s releases live in its own GitHub repository next to the source that built them.

The SideSuite app pack

Your phone’s Library app already knows how to do this. It takes app packs, which are collections of apps you add by scanning a code, and SideSuite has one. Scanning it adds all the SideSuite apps to your library; you then pick which ones you actually want and install those. Adding the pack installs nothing on its own.

It is the route I would recommend. Apps installed from a pack skip Android’s “install from unknown sources” warning, and updates arrive on their own without you tapping through anything. Neither of the other two routes can do that.

QR code that adds the SideSuite app pack to the Library app
  1. Open Library on the phone.
  2. Go to Settings → App Packs and choose to add one, then scan the code on this page.
  3. Glance at the fingerprint the phone shows as it adds the pack. It should match the one below.
  4. All the SideSuite apps appear in your library. Install whichever ones you want; leaving the rest listed and uninstalled is fine.

If you would rather type it than scan it, the address is https://fdroid.sidesuite.app/fdroid/repo, and the Library will show you this signing fingerprint as it adds the pack:

61FD7A8F0D32925EE80C7F55A6690C2A02C2FC3CA9C678370BF623EAB29870A0

The code you scanned already contains it, so the phone has it either way. From then on the Library does the checking for you: every update has to be signed by the same key, and it verifies that each time without asking. Checking it once here is all you have to do.

Or, if you’d rather not

Both of these work now and will keep working. Nothing about the app pack replaces them.

Obtainium

Obtainium watches an app’s GitHub releases and tells you when there is a new one. It is free, open source, and needs no account. You will get update notifications, but you will still tap through each install.

  1. Install Obtainium, if you do not have it. Download its APK from its own GitHub releases page, or get it from F-Droid.
  2. In Obtainium, tap Add App and paste the repository URL for the app you want:
  3. Tap Install. Obtainium fetches the latest signed release and hands it to Android to install.
  4. Repeat for the others. Obtainium checks that each update is signed with the same key as the version you already have.

The plain APK

A direct download, with no extra apps involved. You will not hear about updates.

  1. Open the app’s Releases page and download the .apk.
  2. Copy it to the phone, or download it on the phone directly, and open it.
  3. Android will ask whether to allow installs from this source. Say yes. This is Android’s normal warning for anything that did not come from a store, not a sign anything is wrong.
  4. Open the app once to finish setup.
  • SideType Releases → then enable it under Languages & input
  • SideCall Releases → then grant its two permissions
  • SideHome Releases → then press Home and choose it as your launcher

After installing

SideType needs enabling as a keyboard before you can use it: Settings → System → Languages & input → On-screen keyboard. It installs alongside your existing keyboards and removes nothing.

SideCall needs two one-time permissions, both granted from its own setup screen.

SideHome needs choosing as your launcher: press Home once after installing and pick it. Nothing else is required, and the weather and notification dots stay off until you turn them on.

None of them asks for anything else after that. SideCall declares no internet permission at all. SideType uses the network only to fetch a dictionary or voice model you have asked for, and SideHome only to fetch weather for a place you have typed in.

If something goes wrong

If an install is refused, it is almost always one of two things: the file did not finish downloading, or Android has not been given permission to install from wherever you opened it. Try downloading again first.

If it still will not go, open an issue on the app’s repository and say what the phone told you. I read them.