Sideloading

Google addresses Huawei ban and warns customers not to sideload apps like Gmail and YouTubeThe VergeGoogle on Friday evening published a support article meant to clarify the ongoing situation with Huawei. Last year, the United States government ...

Sideloading is a term used mostly on the Internet, similar to "upload" and "download", but in reference to the process of transferring files between two local devices, in particular between a computer and a mobile device such as a mobile phone, smartphone, PDA, tablet, portable media player or e-reader.

Sideloading typically refers to media file transfer to a mobile device via USB, Bluetooth, WiFi or by writing to a memory card for insertion into the mobile device.

When referring to Android apps, "sideloading" typically means installing an application package in APK format onto an Android device. Such packages are usually downloaded from websites other than Google Play, usually through a computer. For Android users sideloading of apps is only possible if the user has allowed "Unknown Sources" in their Security Settings.^[1]

When referring to iOS apps, "sideloading" means installing an app in IPA format onto an Apple Device, usually through the use of a computer program such as Cydia Impactor^[2], Xcode, on the actual device using a Jailbreak method or using a signing service instead of through Apple's App Store. On modern versions of iOS, the sources of the apps must be trusted by both Apple and the user in "profiles and device management" in settings; except when using jailbreak methods of sideloading apps.

Contents

• 1Historical
• 2Advantages
• 3Disadvantages
• 4Methods
  • 4.1USB sideloading
  • 4.2Bluetooth sideloading
  • 4.3Memory card sideloading
• 5See also
• 6References

Historical[edit]

The term "sideload" was coined in the late 1990s by online storage service i-drive as an alternative means of transferring and storing computer files virtually instead of physically.^[3][4] In 2000 i-drive applied for a trademark on the term.^[5] Rather than initiating a traditional file "download" from a website or FTP site to their computer, a user could perform a "sideload" and have the file transferred directly into their personal storage area on the service. Usage of this feature began to decline as newer hard drives became cheaper and the space on them grew each year into the gigabytes and the trademark application was abandoned.