How to Sideload Android Apps on Android TV?

Android is everywhere. It is inside your phone, in your watch, fitness bands, inside your car and even on your TV’s. Android is a very popular operating system that outranked every other operating system with its huge user base. No other OS is even close to it. Google has put Android everywhere it can.

This has enabled users to enjoy the flavour of Android even on big screens. It is indeed very useful as users can enjoy Android apps like Amazon prime, Hotstar, Spotify and Netflix on big screens to get endless entertainment.

Android TV’s are getting popular these days. Especially Chinese manufacturers have disrupted the market with low priced feature-rich Android TV’s. This increased the Android TV OS market share and users are able to enjoy Android on large screens.

Users can enjoy a similar Android experience on TV just like they have that in mobile. Android TVs come preloaded with Google’s Play Store. With this service, users can instantly get access to millions of Android apps that are available on Play Store.

They can quickly download any app they like by launching the Play Store. The problem with Android TV’s is that many apps are not yet designed to support the large screens of television sets.

Also, you can’t install apps like GB Instagram, GB WhatsApp and other useful apps that are not on play store. Don’t worry if you are thinking about installing your favourite apps that you frequently used on your mobile device.

In the world of technology, everything is possible you are a little bit of geek. There is a way to install best Android apps from APK files in Android TV.

So if you are looking ways to install or sideload apps on Android you need to follow a simple trick to sideload apps on Android TV.

Before you actually install or sideload Android apps on your Android TV you need to turn on a setting to proceed without any issues. Follow the below simple steps to turn on security settings that allow users to install or sideload Android apps on Android TV.

•  From your TV menu access Android settings and open that. scroll down a bit and look out for the option called security and restrictions.

•  In the security settings menu allow installation of apps from unknown sources. This must be toggled ON to sideload apps on TV. If you see any popups accept them and you are on your way.

Method 1:

Installing Android apps on Android TV using a USB drive
Of all the methods installing Android apps on Android TV using a USB drive is by far the easiest way to learn Android apps into Android TV. Even the novice user can easily do this.
All you need to do is to copy the APK file of the app you wish to install into the USB drive and install it.

Below is a simple method that assists you in installing Android apps using a USB flash drive.
•  Download the APK file of the app enters your PC or Mac. you can easily get the APK files of any Android app from sites like APK mirror.
•  Save the APK file onto your PC and now transfer it to a USB flash drive.
•  Plugin the USB drive to your Android TV.
•  Now launch Google Play Store from your TV and Install a file Manager called ES File Explorer which is a very popular File Manager app for Android.
•  Smart TV’s from Xiaomi do come with default File manager apps.
Now Open the file manager and browse the folder where you copied the APK file of the app you wish to install.
•  Click on it and you will see a pop up to install the app on to your TV.
•  Click on Install and the app will be installed on to your TV.

Method 2:

Sideloading apps on Android TV through FTP
This is a bit geeks way of installing Android apps on Android TV. You don’t actually have to worry as it is quite easy to install Android apps using the FTP process.

You just need a tool that can quickly connect to your FTP server from your Android TV. You can easily set up FTP server either on your Windows PC or Mac. Simply follow the below steps to set up an FTP server on both Windows and Mac and connect to the FTP server using the file manager on your Android TV.

So let’s get started and we will first set up the FTP server on your computer

Connecting to your Mac through FTP:

•  It is actually easy to share files on Mac.
•  All you need is just headed to your system preferences and click on the sharing option.
•  On the left side look out for an option called file sharing and remote login and allow access for all users.
•  Doing so you will see something called SSH. There you will find some SSH credentials which include your username and IP address. Note down the IP address and username of your machine.
•  Now in the next step open ES file explorer on your Android TV.
•  Click on the top left menu icon and you will see an option called network.
•  Under the network bar open FTP. Click on new to add or connect to a new server and select SFTP. Now enter the details of your secure FTP server Enter the IP address and username under the respective fields. In the password field enter your Mac login password.

This will connect you to your MacBook and from there we can navigate to your desired folder where You have saved your Android apps. ES file explorer helps you to easily navigate across your Mac directories. Simply tap on the APK file of your Android app and install it on to your TV.

This is how you connect your Android TV to your MacBook.

Connecting to your Windows PC through FTP:

•  Just like in Mac it is very easy to set up an FTP server on windows. To do that you need to download and install FileZilla server on your PC.
•  You need to enter and remember the port number that was configured during installation. The default port number is 14147. Use any port number of your choice but make sure that you won’t forget it.
•  Upon successful installation and configuration launch your FileZilla server by entering localhost and port number. Doing so will connect you to your server.
•  Now from the menu click on edit and select users there from there go to shared folders and click on add under users. Now configure username that will be used to connect it to your FTP client during login.
•  Now select the users and click on add to add shared folders choose a directory you want to share files over FTP. Is better to create a separate directory for sharing purpose. Upon successful selection click on ok and your FTP server is now ready to transfer files.
•  With this, you have successfully created file server on your Windows PC and now it’s time to connect it with your Android TV.

The Process is similar to the previous one. launch ES file explorer and navigate to FTP and click on add new server. Enter your FTP credentials in the respective fields click on connect now you can access your shared folder which hosts your Android APK files. Tap on the APK file and you can install the app on to your Android TV.

In this way, you can sideload Android apps on Android TV. In some android TV’S you may not see the sideloaded Android apps. To access doors apps you need to install an app called sideload launcher which can be downloaded from Play Store.

Conclusion
So this is how one can install your favourite Android apps on Android TV and enjoy the services seamlessly. We have carefully picked up the easiest way for this process so that uses doesn’t feel any issues while installing apps if you have faced any difficulty feel free to comment below.

About the author

Abhishek Shrivastav is a WordPress and Drupal Expert. He have 9+ years of experience in Web Development. He have developed a wide range of websites for almost all the field. Apart from this, he also work as Professional Blogger and provide services and support to other in solving their CMS related issues. Read more

Please share your feedback about this blog and author