Sideloading apps means installing them outside of the App Store. You can use utilities such as AltStore, Sideloady, and Xcode to install .ipa files on your iPhone or iPad using just your Apple ID without the App Store review process playing any part in it.
In an attempt to make sideloading apps a more positive experience for the end user, iOS developers Exid and Dyllie have created an online application library called Syde from which sideloaders can discover apps and quickly sideload them using whatever utility they might have available for their device.
Just last week, the AltStore team released AltStore Classic version 2.0.1 with several bugs fixes and improvements, including support for dark mode & tinted app icons in iOS 18 and support for Home Screen Quick Actions with support information.
It looks like AltStore isn’t the only sideloading application receiving updates this Wednesday. In an announcement post shared to /r/jailbreak just this afternoon, the Sideloadly team announced that it too had released an update to its sideloading utility.
In a post shared to X (formerly Twitter) Wednesday afternoon, the AltStore team shared that it had released small updates to both its AltStore PAL alternative App Store for the European Union and its AltStore Classic sideloading platform for the rest of the world.
The AltStore team took to X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday to announce version 2.1.3 of the AltStore PAL alternative App Store for iPhone and iPad users residing in the European Union.
SparseRestore is the exploit everybody is talking about right now. It’s what made installing TrollStore on iOS 17.0 possible for the general public for the first time since the firmware stopped being signed, and it was also used in various hacks such as MisakaX and Nugget, just to name a few.
The AltStore Team on Saturday celebrated the fifth anniversary of the day when it launched AltStore Classic for all iPhone and iPad owners worldwide who sought an easy way to sideload apps on their devices via an Apple Developer-registered Apple ID with the release of AltStore version 2.0.
Ever European Union-based regulators shook things up for Apple, the Cupertino-based company is now forced to allow third-party App Stores such as AltStore PAL and the Epic Games Store in the EU. Sadly, these experiences aren’t available anywhere else in the world because Apple predictably region-locked them to the EU.
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.
Lars Fröder (@opa334dev), the mastermind behind the Dopamine jailbreak and the TrollStore perma-signing utility that many of us have come to use on a regular basis, shared a teaser last night of what appears to be a “Lite” version of TrollStore.
Sideloading apps has become a popular pastime for iPhone & iPad owners because it allows them to install apps that are otherwise restricted from being distributed on the App Store. Unfortunately, installing apps in this manner can be a double-edged sword because you’re limited to sideloading a certain number of apps with a free Apple developer account.
Sideloading is something that a lot of iPhone and iPad owners cherish because it allows them to run apps on their iPhone or iPad without being bound to the rules of the iOS & iPadOS App Store. Sideloading has become so popular in recent years that platforms like AltStore and Sideloadly have exploded in popularity. Some projects, such as SideStore, don’t even require a computer to sign apps, but other prerequisites need to be met.