Sideloading Apps

This is more of an Android feature than anything specific to Samsung, but the ability to sideload apps from anywhere on the web is definitely something we’d like to come to the iPhone and iPad.

In case you don’t know, sideloading lets you download apps from places other than the official App Store. For instance, you could download an app from a third-party app marketplace or even directly from a website.

Thanks to the new Digital Markets Act, folks in the European Union can now sideload apps to their iPhones. However, it still doesn’t work quite as freely as it does with Samsung and other Android phones phones. Not only that, but the rest of the world is just waiting for Apple to let us do that.

Unfortunately, we don’t know if or when Apple will allow sideloading apps into your iPhone, but we don’t recommend holding your breath. Apple only opened up sideloading in the EU because it was forced to, and it likely won’t do so elsewhere unless other government regulators follow Europe’s lead.