Note: This article was updated on April 6, 2026

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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, offers system-level notifications to alert you of new releases and, if configured, auto-downloads these updates.

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Getting Started

Setting up Obtainium might seem intimidating, but it’s an insanely easy process.Everything in the below guide is done completely on the handheld.

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Set Up Obtainium

Setting up Obtainium is quite easy, and once you’re finished Obtainium will take care of the maintenance of your apps and emulators. The bulk of the process is configuring your apps to be tracked, and making sure they identify correctly to update accordingly.

Step 1: Download Obtainium

You have two options for downloading Obtainium:

• On your handheld, open up your preferred web browser, and head to https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium or https://obtainium.imranr.dev/
  • You can also find these links easily by typing “Obtainium GitHub” into a search engine.

Step 1A: GitHub

If installing via GitHub, follow the below steps:

• Go to https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium
• Look for the Releases section (or scroll down until you see the word Releases) and tap on this section.
• 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 “standard” 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
• Tap 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, tap the Settings button, and then turn on the slider next to Allow from this source.

• Tap the back button and, when prompted, press Install.

Step 2A: Obtainium Website

If installing via the Obtainium website, follow the below steps:

• Go to https://obtainium.imranr.dev/
• Look for the Download Universal APK option towards the bottom of the page, and tap on armv8

• Follow the same steps as mentioned for the GitHub version in regards to downloading and permissions on your handheld.

Once you have your preferred download method sorted and have installed the app, open Obtainium. Ensure that you Allow notifications from Obtainium, as this is how you will be notified that apps need to be updated, as well as progress notifications when updating these apps. Tap Okay through the Welcome and Note prompts.

You are now on the Obtainium home page. We will cover adding applications to Obtainium in the next step.

Step 2: Adding Apps via Obtainium

You have two options here, adding apps via the Emulation Pack, or manually adding them via Obtainium. The first is incredibly simple and the recommended option, but we’ll go over both in this guide.

Obtainium Emulation Pack

• On your handheld, open up your preferred web browser, and head to the GitHub page https://github.com/RJNY/Obtainium-Emulation-Pack.
  • You can also find this link easily by typing “Obtainium Emulation Pack” into a search engine.
• Look for the Releases section (or scroll down until you see the word Releases) and tap on this section.
• Under the Assets section, find the newest APK.

• If you are installing Obtainium on something like an AYN Thor or AYANEO Pocket DS, ensure that you select the “dual screen” version.

• Go into Obtainium on your device, and tap on Import/Export.

• Tap on Obtainium Import, and find the obtainium-emulation.json file in your Downloads folder.

• You should get a notification that Obtainium has Imported XX apps + settings.

• Return to the Apps tab to see a list of the imported applications.

Manually Add Apps via Obtainium

• On the bottom of Obtainium, tap Add App.

• For the App Source URL, you should put the GitHub link. Do not tap 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 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, tap Add next to the App Source URL.

Step 3: Install the Apps

Once you’ve added the source URL or added the app via the Emulation Pack, return to the Apps tab on Obtainium. You should see a list of the various apps that have been added. Tap on a specific app to start the installation process.

• Tap Install
• On your device, tap Install when prompted

Congrats, you’ve now successfully installed an app via Obtainium! Go through the list of applications and follow this same process for every app that you would like to install on your device.

Setting Categories

When looking at the list of apps in your Obtainium Apps tab, you’ll notice that they are sorted by color and type. If you want to change a category for an app, or you have one that doesn’t have a category, tap on a specific app and scroll down to the bottom. There will be a list of categories already present (if you used the Emulation Pack import method), and you’ve got a couple of things you can do here:

• Tap on an existing category to add or remove that app to or from that category.
• Tap the + icon to add a category.
• Tap the paint can icon to change a category color.
  • Be aware, this will change it for all apps in that category.
• Tap the – button to delete a category.
  • Be aware, removing a category also removes (not uninstall) any apps from that category.

Removing an App

If you would like to remove an app from the list (especially helpful if you imported that massive emulation pack file), long-hold on a specific app, tap the trash can delete icon, and tap Continue.

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F-Droid and FOSS

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 tap 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 slider on and tap the back button. From there, you may have to tap Install again, but the process will proceed as normal this time around.

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Post-Install

The app is installed, updates are being tracked, and now you’ve got your emulators and applications setup. There are some settings to look at, which we’ll cover here.

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.

The options here are mostly for organizational purposes. They do exactly as the setting would suggest, but enabling them is entirely up to you.

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Updating

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

We manually update, which is also insanely easy.

1. 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.
2. Tap the download icon, the downward-facing arrow with half of a box beneath it.
3. The app will ask if you want to Update x apps and have a slider next to it. Slide it to the On position.
4. Tap 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, tap 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 tap Update.

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Wrap-Up

Obtainium is an exceptional way to get everything you may need for your retro handheld. A ton of the most highly recommended apps are distributed via GitHub or other non-Play Store options, and Obtainium is a simple way to ensure you get what you need, as well as making the maintenance process as painless as possible.

For some devices, you can even avoid installing the apps shown in the device’s setup process (which are usually terrible and outdated versions) 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.