Ever since AltStore came to be, sideloading on the iPhone and iPad has become a very popular activity. This speaks volumes about people’s desire to install non-App Store approved apps on their devices, and it also gave lots of mobile developers ideas about how the sideloading experience could be improved.
We recently showed you a fork of AltStore called SideStore that enabled on-device signing of apps without the use of a computer, but it wasn’t without its quirks. That said, those who’ve been looking for such a service may find refuge with a newly released app called Feather by iOS developers khcrysalis, HAHALOSAH, llsc12, nekohaxx, and mineek.
In an announcement post shared to X (formerly Twitter) late Saturday afternoon, khcrysalis revealed that they were releasing the Feather project as a totally open-source signing application that works entirely on-device and that utilizes certificates that are associated with Apple IDs enrolled in ADP (Apple’s Developer Program).
These certificates generally allow 365 day/1 year signing instead of the more limited 7 day/1 week signing lent by free Apple ID-based sideloading, but as good as that sounds, this also requires that your Apple ID be subscribed to the $98.99/year Developer Program, so it isn’t for everybody.
Citing the project’s GitHub page, Feather brings a lot of useful features to the table, including the following:
– Altstore repo support. Supporting Legacy and 2.0 repo structures
– Import your own.ipa‘s.
– Inject tweaks when signing apps.
– Install applications straight to your device seemlessly over the air.
– Allows multiple certificate imports for easy switching.
– Configurable signing options. (name, bundleid, version, other plist options)
– Meant to be used with Apple Accounts that are apart ofADP(Apple Developer Program). however other certificates can also work!
– Easy resigning! If you have another certificate you would like to use on an app you may resign and reinstall that same app!
– No tracking, analytics, or any of the sort. Your information such as udid and certificates will never leave the device.
What’s more is that while Feather is an Apple Developer Program-centric on-device app sideloading solution, it also supports power features like injecting tweaks into .ipa files, installing apps from AltStore repositories, and managing certificates. It’s especially easy to import certificates, so you can manage more than one effortlessly.
Feather is an especially good-looking app that utilizes UIKit for an enhanced user experience.
To those wondering why users wouldn’t just use the already well-established ESign service, the Feather developers warn on the GitHub page that it was recently discovered that ESign sends analytics to “some other location,” which obviously carries both privacy and security risks. Feather doesn’t do this, and being open source helps the community validate these claims.
Since Feather is predominantly intended for those looking to utilize their Apple Developer Program-enrolled Apple IDs, anyone rocking the free Apple Developer status via their Apple ID that doesn’t have any interest in paying the $98.99 premium can continue to use AltStore. Feather will, however, appeal to developers who are enrolled in the Apple Developer Program and want the added benefit of on-device app signing.
You can learn more about Feather by visiting the project’s GitHub page. Worthy of note, a separate team of developers are also working on QuickSign, which is yet another alternative to ESign. QuickSign isn’t yet available to the general public and has only been teased as of late.
Do you think you’ll be taking advantage of Feather? Tell us why or why not in the comments section down below.