How to Setup Obtainium on Android

by | Oct 23, 2024 | Features, Guide | 0 comments

Obtainium is an app that allows users to update and track apps distributed via GitHub, official websites, and other non-Play Store locations.

This is an incredibly useful tool for retro handhelds running Android since a good portion of suggested apps and emulators are only distributed via GitHub and remain unseen on the Play Store.

Usually, to manage apps installed via GitHub, you would have to manually track when a new release has dropped, visit the app’s release page, download the newest .apk, and install it via Android’s file manager. Obtainium does all of this for you, and offers system-level notifications to alert you of new releases, and, if configured, auto downloads.

Table of Contents

Getting Started

To start, let’s keep things easy. You could use a computer to move things from your computer to your Android handheld, but you don’t need to. It’s more complicated to do so. Everything in the below guide is done completely on the handheld.

Setting up Obtainium can often seem intimidating if you’ve never done anything more than download from GitHub, but it’s an insanely easy process. Stick along for the guide and I’ll prove it.

What You’ll Need

    • Android handheld
      • Wi-Fi has to be enabled or this will simply not work
    • 1GB in useable space
      • The amount of space needed varies, but 1GB is enough to ensure you have enough space for downloads.

Set Up Obtainium

Setting up Obtainium is more or less a set-it-and-forget-it type of deal. The bulk of the process is configuring your apps to be tracked, and making sure they identify correctly.

That’s kinda it. So, let’s kinda get into it.

Step 1: Download Obtainium

First, you need to do the most basic part: download Obtainium.

You can find this link easily as opposed to typing it in by hand either by finding this article on your handheld and clicking the above link, or just loading up Google and searching for “Obtainium GitHub” from your handheld.

  • Look for the Releases section (or scroll down until you see the word Releases) and click whichever version it shows there.
  • Under the Assets section, find the newest APK.
    • At the time of publication, the newest is app-arm64-v8a-release.apk

There is more info about the difference between F-Droid and “normal” releases in the Quick Notes section, but for the sake of simplicity, we’ll stick to the normal one to avoid another area of potential confusion. Set up for the normal release highlighted above and the fdroid-release version is exactly the same.

  • Once the app has finished downloading, you can tap the notification where your browser alerts you of the download being finished and it will open from there. If it doesn’t open that way or does nothing at all, head to your File Manager app, then Downloads, and you should see the .apk right there.
  • Tap the .apk to open it.
  • Choose Package installer
  • Pick either Just once or Always and it will ask if you want to Install it.
    • If you pick Always, any .apk file you open via your File Manager app will start its install process
    • If you pick Just once, the File Manager app will ask every time you attempt to open an .apk
  • Hit Install.

  • If you get an alert about your browser of choice or the File Manager app not allowing you to install apps from unknown sources, hit the Settings button, and then turn on the knob next to Allow from this source.
  • Hit the back arrow in the top left and you should presented with the same screen as the two images above, hit Install.

Step 2: Add apps via Obtaintium

You have two options here, adding apps via app configurations, or manually adding them via Obtainium. Nine out of ten times, the configuration file method is easiest, but if the app you’re after isn’t available there, adding them manually is also a walk in the park.

Add Apps via Online App Configurations

Obtainium primarily works to track and source downloads from GitHub. But it’s not limited to just GitHub.

Some apps are distributed via official websites, other sites, and links, some less distinct than others. We can even bypass the need to hunt down these links and sites and how to configure them properly via premade app configurations.

  • Head to https://apps.obtainium.imranr.dev on your handheld.
    • This site is a crowdsourced configuration database run by the developer of Obtainium. Here, you can search and find popular apps and tap a button to add them directly into Obtainium.
  • Make sure Obtainium is installed, then search for an app.
  • Once you find an app you want, hit Add to Obtainium and Obtainium should open immediately.

Hit Add to Obtainium

  • Obtainium should open an Import App window with Raw JSON right in the middle. Hit Continue.

and Continue here

  • The app will be added to the Apps section; it should say Not installed next to it.
  • Tap the app, and you should see a screen like below. Skip ahead to the Install the App section of the guide.

Manually Add Apps via Obtainium

  • On the bottom of Obtainium, hit Add App.

  • For the App Source URL, you should put the GitHub link. Do not hit Add yet.

For example, if you wanted to use MelonDS, your app source URL should be https://github.com/rafaelvcaetano/melonDS-android

Beneath that, you should see Additional options for GitHub, but there are only a few you should worry about right now. Whether or not you enable them is up to you.

    • Include Pre-releases: Some apps on GitHub distribute pre-release versions well before the main release. Turning this on will download and update your apps based on every time a pre-release and normal release drops.
    • Fallback on older releases: This allows the app to look for older releases if a new release only includes, for example, an iPhone .ipa and not a .apk.
    • Verify the latest tag: This will verify that the version you’re downloading is the latest release
    • Use latest asset upload as release date: The release date for the app will be the day the app was uploaded to Github.
    • Track-Only: The app will only send notifications about new app releases and it becomes your responsibility to go in and download it.
      • Apps will only auto-update if the device is on Android 12 or higher.
  • Once you add the source URL and enable or disable the options you want, hit Add next to the App Source URL.

Step 3: Install the Apps

Once you’ve added the source URL or added the app via a configuration link, you should see a screen like below, where the app is in large letters and the word Install sitting in the bottom.

  • Hit Install
  • On your device, you should see an alert asking you the most appropriate question it could possibly ask: Do you want to install this application?
  • Hit Install

Congrats, you’ve now successfully installed an app via Obtainium! Throw a party!

Quick Notes

Occasionally, when you add a GitHub source that has multiple .apk files available in a single release, the app will ask which you want to download. In the example below, one is labeled with foss and the other is not.

F-Droid/FOSS versions of apps are open-sourced, contain no trackers (like Google or ad networks), and must not have commercial or paid libraries. The normal releases are akin to what would be downloaded directly from the Play Store.

Under most circumstances, the FOSS or F-Droid version may be better if you’re trying to limit the number of processes running in the background or if you simply don’t like the aforementioned trackers. Either way, both are fine.

When you hit Install in the final step via Obtainium, you might see another screen wherein Obtainium needs to be granted the ability to Install apps from this source just like Chrome did above. Do the same thing — turn the knob on and hit the back button. From there, you may have to hit Install again, but the process will proceed as normal this time around.

Turn that bad boy ON

Post-Install

The app is installed, its updates are being tracked, and now you’re essentially good to do. There are some settings to look at, but the Updating section is the most important thing to be aware of.

The first setting to look at is the Background Update Checking Interval. The app is configured by default to check for updates whenever it opens, but it updates your apps based on the interval set here. You have to be on Android 12 or above for it to update automatically. On lower firmware, it will check for updates and alert you of them.

I leave mine on 6 hours because, honestly, the default is fine. I’m rarely eager to download updates, but if I am, I can just update it via Obtainium’s main view.

The options here are mostly for organizational purposes. They do exactly as the setting would suggest, but it’s entirely up to you if you want to, for example, pin updates to the top of your Apps list.

Updating

As discussed above, Obtainium on Android 12 and up has the ability to update apps in the background. However, a lot of retro handhelds do not support Android 12 and up — so what do we do?

We manually update, which is also insanely easy.

  • Open Obtainium, and in the corner, be sure you’re in the Apps section.
  • Tap the dashed-line box, this will select every app you have added to the app.
  • Hit the download icon, the downward-facing arrow with half of a box beneath it.
  • The app will ask if you want to Update x apps and have a knob next to it. Slide it to the On position, and hit Continue.

If your device is on Android 12 or above, your apps will, by default, update automatically.

If you wish to disable this, you can tap an app in the Apps view, hit the pencil icon that will show in the bottom left, and then scroll all the way down until you see Exempt from background updates (if enabled) and turn it On

With this option On, Obtainium will not auto-update the app in the background. You will have to open Obtainium, go to the Apps sections, see its update available, and hit Update in the middle of the bottom. Should look like the first screenshot above.

Wrap-Up

Obtainium is a godsend for retro handhelds. A ton of the most highly recommended apps are either distributed via GitHub, or the app is on the Play Store, but the device itself doesn’t utilize the Play Store. This is a perfect solution for both problems.

For some devices, namely the Retroid Pocket series, I would even suggest users avoid installing the apps shown in the device’s setup process and simply download Obtainium after setup and download apps that way.

With so many fine details and software quirks with each handheld, having one less thing to worry about makes gaming on them so much easier. Through Obtainium, you can ensure that your apps are fully updated and that you’re following the most recent changes made to them — easily.

What did you think of this guide? Will you be checking out Obtainium? Let us know in the comments below, and chat with us in our Discord!

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