I stopped manually updating sideloaded apps the moment I found an open source app manager

Published Sep 16, 2026, 12:15 PM EDT Akshay Bhalla was the former game guides editor for Screen Rant and the technology editor at MensXP. He has previously written about smartphones, apps, streaming, gadgets, and games for print, digital, and TV media outlets. When he isn’t writing about tech, he can often be found playing JRPGs, listening to music, or playing with his three dogs. You can reach Akshay at bhallanator @ proton dot me. Sideloading open source apps on Android has been a key differentiator from walled gardens like iOS. It's always been a part of the Android experience, which might not carry forward in the near future. For now, though, thanks to open source alternatives, I've de-Googled my digital footprint quite a bit. But since most of these apps come from GitHub or other sources, downloading them can be a pain. Until I found an app that automatically downloads updates for sideloaded apps. Obtainium is the APK update manager that made my life easy I procrastinated on manual app updates I use several sideloaded apps on my phone, including new, free open source apps (FOSS) like browsers that do a better job than Chrome. My main purpose for using open source alternatives is to avoid subscriptions, Google's telemetry, emulators, and features locked behind paywalls. So far, everything has gone smoothly, except for one major issue. Since I download most of these apps from GitHub and other sources, updating them can be cumbersome. Sideloading apps on Android devices can lead to malware infections, privacy risks, and financial fraud when you download apps from alternate sources. I use a separate device for sideloaded apps and do not store financial apps or personal data on it. Please proceed with caution. I would have to pull the app's repository manually, download the latest APK, and reinstall it. This gets annoying fast with multiple apps, and keeping on top of every update can be hectic. Eventually, I started procrastinating and didn't bother updating an app for months. Then I came across an app called Obtainium on APKMirror that solved this main issue for me. There isn't a unified App Store for open source apps, and since the Play Store has spoiled me with automatic updates, I needed a solution. The same goes for alternative sources like APKMirror, F-Droid, and direct developer websites. Since most FOSS apps are actively developed and constantly add new features, it's best to keep them up to date. My main reason FOSS apps need frequent updates is security patches and bug fixes. When I use open source apps, every update feels meaningful, even though I'm horrible at keeping them updated. Obtainium is also an open source app that can fetch app updates from the source of sideloaded apps. The app tracks the latest release of each app and polls for updates every six hours, which you can also tweak. You download updates from GitHub repositories, and you can download from a few other sources. These include: GitLab Codeberg/Forgejo F-Droid Aptoide Uptodown APKPURE IzzyOnDroid Huawei AppGallery itch.io Direct APK links HTML scraper for other links You can add filters for pre-releases, preferred ABI, and release notes when adding a source to Obtainium. After you add a source for an app, Obtainium handles the rest and periodically auto-updates the sideloaded app and itself. How to add open source apps for auto-updates in Obtainium It's quite straightforward Adding an open source app for auto-updates in Obtainium is straightforward. Add the link to the app page from one of the sources. Tap the + icon, paste the source URL, add filters if needed, and tap the small + icon next to the URL field where you pasted the link. Obtainium then runs the background checks it needs and downloads the latest APK for that app. After the update downloads, tap the download button on Obtainium's main listing page for the update to take effect; this takes a few seconds. You can also check additional details, such as the current app version installed on your device and the most recent version you can download using Obtainium. You can also tweak other nifty settings to suit your preferences. For example, I turned on the setting to install updates only when connected to Wi-Fi. You can also tweak other settings, such as updates only when charging, allowing parallel downloads, and enabling background silent installs. I recommend adding your personal GitHub access token (no special permissions) to avoid rate limits if you want to update multiple apps. In Obtainium, go to Settings > External Sources > GitHub to add your GitHub token. After you've added sources for your open source apps, you get access to patches when a developer ships an update. This is useful for emulators like Dolphin, RetroArch, and others, since they update frequently. Finally, if you have multiple devices, you don't need to set up links for each app on the other device. You can export and import configurations into Obtainium on every device, and the app will automatically update the apps. Open source apps have become popular, largely because many users want to de-Google their digital lives. But keeping up with open source app updates can be a nightmare, and downloading them one by one isn't feasible. But with Obtainium, auto-updates for sideloaded apps make phones safer. It lets you set up and forget open source apps with ease. I recommend caution when sideloading apps, though, because not every developer has good intentions and auto-updates can quickly become a bane.