- Is it legal to sideload apps to your Firestick
or your Chromecast or Apple TV or whatever?
Yes.
Yes, it is, right up until it isn't.
Now, if you've heard of sideloading
or jailbreaking your streaming device,
but weren't sure what it was all about,
or if you should be doing it,
well, that is the topic of today's video.
We'll go over what sideloading is and how to do it.
And then honestly three reasons why,
you might not actually want to bother.
Now let's dive in.
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All right, now, what is sideload?
Let's do a quick tutorial.
If you already know what it is and how to do it
then go ahead and skip the next 60 seconds
or so of the video,
if not here is a crash course in sideloading.
Sideloading means putting apps on a device
that aren't available in that device's app store.
So today I'm going to be using the Firestick as my example,
since it's the most common device that allows sideloading.
The same principles we'll talk about
will apply to many other devices as well
with the giant exception of Roku,
which uses a closed software system,
and doesn't allow sideloading
that sort of kind of tinkering.
Sideloading is in theory at least, pretty simple.
You just need a file manager
and you need some files to put in it.
On the Firestick, the first step
is to allow files from unknown sources.
To do that, go to the Settings menu,
go to My Fire TV, then Developer options,
and then set Apps from Unknown Sources to On.
The next step is to get a file manager
or get the downloader app or something similar
that lets you download files from online
or send files from your phone to your Firestick.
Once you've got that you can search
or browse for stuff to download to your device.
Not too complicated, right?
So what's the point of all this?
What can you get now that your device is sideload-ready?
Well, think back to those long forgotten days
of your all the way back in 2019,
when you couldn't get YouTube on your Firestick
or prime video on your Chromecast
because Google and Amazon were fighting.
Or the first few months of HBO, Max and Peacock,
when they weren't available yet on the Firestick.
Well, sideloading allows you
to circumvent those restrictions
and get those apps or apps like them
without having to go out and buy a whole new device.
Now, obviously those particular issues,
have been worked out since then, but who knows?
Maybe similar issues will pop up in the future,
or maybe it's something else entirely.
You want a browser that's not available natively
on your device, or Kodi or whatever,
now, once you've learned how to sideload
you can download just about any app
that you can find online.
Sounds pretty sweet.
But hold on a second, I mentioned earlier
that there are a few reasons why you might not want
to even bother with all of this.
The first is the potential legal issues.
The second is your online safety.
And the third is more of a practical point.
Let's talk about the legal issues first.
This is a topic that comes up a lot on our channel.
I review a lot of streaming services
and one of the questions I get most often is,
why don't you review Cinema HD or other APKs?
APK is by the way, simply any file extension
for the Android operating system.
That's what Fire TV operates on.
Well, like I said, there are a few reasons not
to bother with sideloading,
but one of the big ones for me is that watching
the copyrighted content that you find on some of these apps,
the content you're not paying for, not legal.
Now call me old fashioned
but I'm a big fan of supporting creators who work hard
to bring you good content.
Like and subscribe. Thank you very much.
Now, this legality thing can get a bit confusing
because the apps themselves are actually perfectly legal,
most of the time.
These apps don't actually host any copyrighted content,
which would be illegal.
Instead when you click on a title,
the app will go fetch the content from somewhere online
where it is being stored.
Same thing goes with gaming emulators
which are pretty popular on the Firestick.
The emulator itself is totally legal,
but it's often illegal to actually play
the copywriter games.
They let you play,
unless you have some legitimately source ROMs or something.
Anyway, the point is if the legality
or morality of the issue is important to you
then maybe that sways you away from a sideloading spree.
If not, consider the more selfish reason here,
your online safety.
You know the expression
there's no such thing as a free lunch?
Well, it's extremely apt here.
Basically what it means is
the thing you think you're getting for free,
that show, or that movie that you're downloading,
it might not be as free as you thought.
I won't point any fingers at any particular app
or emulator out there
but some of them are actually just malware in disguise.
And they're looking to use your streaming device
to get access to your network.
Now, some of those are Trojan Horse apps
that get really slick at imitating a bigger name app
in the hopes that you'll download it on accident.
And once you do, you're open to all sorts of data theft.
So, remember the warning we saw when we turned on apps
from unknown sources in the Fire TV menu,
it warns you, that your Firestick and your personal data
are less secure.
And they essentially wash their hands
of any responsibility for what happens after you do this.
And this is pretty much why?
When you download an app
from the official fire TV app store,
Amazon has done some legwork for you to determine
that the app you're getting, isn't going to get you instead.
So when you start sideloading on verified apps,
you're taking your life
or at least your sensitive personal info
into your own hands.
Now maybe that's worth the risk for you.
For me, not so much, at least not these days
because frankly, I just don't see the need for it,
at this point.
When I started using the Firestick years ago,
I couldn't get, say the Firefox browser or YouTube
or more recently HBO max, like I mentioned before
or any number of other apps that weren't playing nice
with the Firestick system.
Nowadays, it's just really not
that much of an issue anymore.
Everything's pretty much there.
And because of that, although I used to do some sideloading,
these days, I figure it's just not really worth
the risk to my security,
it's not worth going around copyright law
and everything else that I used to want,
that I used to have to side load to get on my device
is pretty much there in the app store now.
But hey, maybe that's just me.
Let me know your thoughts on this issue.
I know it's kind of a controversial topic
and I'm probably coming across as a kill joy here
but I'll always tell you how I see it.
But what about you?
Are you a sideloader?
What are you using it for, that I'm just not thinking of.
Let me know in the comments below.
Don't forget to like and subscribe if you enjoyed the video.
Thank you so much for watching everybody
and I will see you next time.