What is sideloading?
Installing apps that aren't in the App Store, explained in two minutes.
Updated
If you've been sent here to install one of our apps, this page explains what you're about to do and what to expect.
The short version
Apple only lets you install apps from the App Store. Our apps change how WhatsApp and Instagram work, which Apple doesn't allow in the App Store — so they can't be there.
is the name for installing an app on your iPhone without the App Store. It's a normal, supported thing that iPhones can do — it just takes a few more steps.
Why apps expire
This is the part that surprises people most.
When you install an app outside the App Store, it has to be signed with a — a signature telling your iPhone the app is allowed to run. Which one you use decides how long the app keeps working:
- A free Apple ID signs apps for 7 days. After that the app stops opening until you refresh it. Tools like AltStore can refresh it for you automatically.
- A paid signing service (about $10–20 a year, from a third party) signs for 1 year.
- An Apple Developer account ($99 a year, from Apple) also signs for 1 year, and you do it yourself.
- , on the iPhone models and iOS versions that support it, signs permanently. Nothing to refresh, ever.
- A jailbroken iPhone doesn't need any of this.
None of that is us being awkward — those are Apple's rules, and every app outside the App Store lives by them.
What won't work
Worth knowing before you spend twenty minutes on this:
Careful
On a sideloaded app, iCloud backup doesn't work, and push notifications usually don't arrive — they need a kind of signature a free Apple ID can't give you.
There are ways around both, and the guides use them: TrollStore gets you everything, and on a sideload you keep the official app installed next to ours to handle notifications and backups. You don't lose anything you have today.
What it costs
Nothing, if you have a computer and don't mind refreshing every 7 days.
If you'd rather not do that, you're choosing between a third-party signing service (cheap, less effort) and an Apple Developer account (expensive, more control). Both last a year.
Jailbreaking is a different thing
You may see the word jailbreak nearby. That's separate: it removes Apple's restrictions from the whole phone, and then installing our apps is trivial. Most people reading this are not jailbroken, and you don't need to be.
If you had to follow a guide with a tool like Dopamine or unc0ver, and you have an app called Sileo, Zebra or Cydia on your home screen, you're jailbroken. If none of that means anything to you, you're not — which is completely fine.
So which do I do?
That depends on your iPhone, your iOS version, and whether you have a computer. Rather than making you work it out:
Answer 3 questions and we'll tell you
Or, if you'd rather read first, see what you need before sideloading.
Did it work?
Yes — what's next
- What you need before sideloadingThe accounts, settings and trade-offs to sort out before you install anything.
- How to sideload our appsThe three tools for installing our apps without a jailbreak — AltStore, a signing service, or your own developer account — and how they compare.
- Why sideloaded apps don't get notificationsThe signing rule behind missing push notifications on sideloaded apps, what's possible for WhatsApp and for Instagram, and the ways around it.
Not yet
Check the common fixesCrashes, “Unable to Verify App”, apps that stop after a weekStill stuck? Tell us which guide and step you're on, and the exact error.