HCoder.org

Installing F-Droid on Nokia 6

I had to buy a new phone recently for reasons. I decided to stay on Android partly because of the apps I’m already using and depending on. Many of them I install from F-Droid, and AFAIK most are only available there. As F-Droid is not available on the Google Play Store, an initial “bootstrapping” is needed. Typically, you download the .apk file from the F-Droid site and install from the file manager.

However, there was apparently no way to install the .apk file from the file manager that came with the phone, so I didn’t know what to do. I looked for the relevant options trying to find the right switch to make it possible, but I didn’t find anything. I tried to look for solutions on the internet but again nothing. After several attempts I figured there must be some application on the Google Play Store that would allow you to install .apk files, and I was right. The problem was, all applications I could see were full of ads and I’m guessing they would leak a lot of information about the phone and its user.

After a while, though, I found one that seemed to do what I wanted without displaying ads and (hopefully) not spying on you. It’s called App Installer and it’s made by a certain Eugen C. It was simple to use (it just finds all .apks you have downloaded and presents them so you can choose which one to install) and it worked like a charm. After that I could finally start installing the applications I wanted from the F-Droid store.

• android
• mobile
• free software