[Mental Outlaw] Apple May Soon Allow Sideloading Apps on iOS

Hal-5700X@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 308 points –
Apple May Soon Allow Sideloading Apps on iOS
odysee.com
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Side loading and OS modding would be the only thing that could make migrate.

Changing their business model from walled garden lock-in would be the only thing that'd make me consider migrating.

Only thing that would make me use an iphone is side loading and the ability to place my icons wherever i want. Its crazy to me that icons have to start in the top left. The hardest place to reach especially as phones have gotten bigger. Such a dumb restriction.

That's really a thing? Wow. Guess you can install a bunch of junk apps to fill that corner so you can reach the stuff you actually use lol

I believe you can place widgets now which would fill some of the space, still very stupid though.

I had the 2nd and 4th Gen iPod touches and the way to do it back then was to jailbreak it and use an app that installs blank icons so you can "arrange" the pages however you wanted. Good times.

also lifting that stupid ban on other browser engines, and I'd like to see the ability to change more default app stuff

ackstually, you can kinda sideload up to two apps already

How?

SideStore (with on-demand activation in wireguard, which I've made a PR for)

Sideloady

Would this allow me to sideload apps that are region restricted?

I’m from the US but live in Asia. The local version of Amazon is restricted to accounts from this country.

I have to use the web app, but the web app is incomplete, I can check order status or message sellers or even contact customer support.

I’d love to be able to do this.

Generally, as far as I understand side loaded apps work as long as you don't reboot your phone. Which is kind of a major issue. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the way apples current side loading works just isn't very applicable with day-to-day use.

Edit: you may be able to bypass this restriction, but as far as I know side loading apps onto Apple phones is extremely difficult. Even jailbreaking an iPhone is extremely limited unless you have a really comprehensive knowledge and then even at that point it is still extremely difficult and relies on people who are very good at what they do. But due to apples restrictions are still not as good as just something you could do out of the box with an Android. In full disclosure, it's been a very long time since I've ever properly used an Apple product. The last time i jail broke something from Apple was probably my iTouch B way back in like 2014 at the latest maybe? I just haven't been within that ecosystem in a long time and all my knowledge is just really acquired from kind of observing what is around. And cursorly looking into it. For me, I have no reason to ever want to go back to an iPhone. Even if I could side load apps, the restriction of where I can place icons on my home screen frustrates me to no end. Especially as phones have evolved and gotten larger its just like it's such a old school bygone concept. I don't even understand why they're so insistent on keeping it.

What? I think you've heavily confused sideloading with jailbreaking. The apps don't disappear after you reboot. You just have to have it refresh every 7 days. With SideStore you don't even need another computer to do stuff. It's convenient as long as you don't need more than 2 other apps. You do NOT need to jailbreak to sideload. If you jailbreak, you can "sideload" infinite apps.

Okay that's good to know. Still generally sounds like a giant pain in the ass

As long as the app doesn't need advanced features like VPN configurations, any app from any region would be fine.

It’s just a shopping app. I’m sure it would work fine. Any advice on how I can find the actual app to add with sideloady?

A couple of years ago when I was trying to find official IPAs I used appcake. You probably want to grab an adblocker (preferably ublock origin) before visiting

Also, again, I recommend using SideStore (with on-demand activation in wireguard, which I've made a PR for) which will auto-refresh

Thanks! I just checked and the app I need is not there. I think I’ll just keep maintaining a second phone.

Do you have payment methods on your Apple ID? Even if you don’t, you can try to switch your region on the Apple ID website. When it asks for payment method, choose “none”.

So, can I do this then switch back to my current region? Maybe this is what I need to do to get all the apps that I need.

Yeah, though you may have to switch back and forth to update

Omg! Why is it so annoying? Like I can’t even get one of my banking apps. I can’t believe that there is not a better solution as there are many people who live between countries.

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