I sideloaded a Reddit client onto my iPhone. I never want to do it again

I have a confession to make: I am an inveterate Reddit scroller. But my viewing experience of choice isn’t the official Reddit iOS app, but a fantastic third-party client called Apollo.

The only problem is, it doesn’t exist in the App Store anymore. Apollo was forcibly closed in June 2023 in what some Redditors regarded as a bullying attempt by Reddit HQ to force out competition to the platform’s official iOS app. Like so many others, I was devastated when Apollo shut down. With an ad-free interface and a smoother and more stable experience than the official app, not to mention. tons of quality-of-life features, such as previews of linked images, in-app gestures, a host of customization options—It was the kind of Reddit client that felt like it belonged on an iPhone.

Thankfully, I had another option. Apollo had created such a loyal fanbase of users—close to a million daily active users at the time it shut down—that many people stepped in to make Apollo available long after support officially ended. That meant I could sideload Apollo onto my iPhone and restore it to its former glory.

Or so I thought. The problem, as I found out, is that sideloading can be a monumental pain. I’m happy to say I now have Apollo working on my iPhone again, but the whole process was and is such an ongoing hassle, and I have a new appreciation for Apple’s fight against sideloading.

A long and arduous installation

The process of sideloading Apollo is long and convoluted and involves hacks, workarounds, and janky workflows. If you’re thinking of doing it yourself, you’re going to need a lot of time, endurance, and above all, patience. If you want to follow in my footsteps, I’ll walk you through it, and there are many guides and Reddit threads full of helpful information. But this is absolutely not a beginner’s process, and it requires much patience, so strap in, because it’s a bumpy ride.

To start, I decided to use an app called AltStore to oversee the sideloading process and one called SideStore to actually install Apollo and keep it refreshed (for this to work, I would need both apps). In the case of Apollo (and, I’m sure, many other sideloaded apps), you need to refresh them every seven days to prevent them from expiring. That’s what SideStore handles.

So, first things first, I downloaded and installed AltStore on my Mac from the app’s website. I also had to download the SideStore .ipa file—which is an App Store package format used to distribute iOS and iPadOS apps—and an app called JitterbugPair (more on this later).

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I plugged my iPhone into my Mac over USB-C, then loaded the SideStore .ipa file onto my iPhone using AltStore. This installed SideStore directly onto my iPhone, no App Store required. So far, so good.

Once all that was done, I was then asked to enter my Apple ID. There are reports that Apple might lock accounts that sideload apps this way, so it’s recommended that you use a burner Apple ID. This was just the first of many warning signs that this whole process would be far more involved than your everyday app installation.

Next, I had to go to the Settings app on my iPhone to approve the new “developer app” added to my phone, then enable Developer Mode. Then I had to open JitterbugPair on my Mac, which generated a pairing file so that SideStore can talk to your device. I uploaded that to iCloud on my Mac. Back on my iPhone, I loaded the pairing file into SideStore.

Mind you, I wasn’t even halfway done by this point. Now I needed a custom VPN. This doesn’t connect to an external server, but essentially lets my device connect to itself over a VPN, which is required for SideStore to refresh itself and any apps I’ve sideloaded. After that, I opened SideStore and signed in with my burner Apple ID. I then had to refresh SideStore, which took a few minutes – if it didn’t get stuck, that is, which it frequently did.

I then downloaded an .ipa file of the last version of Apollo before it was shut down. This is available on GitHub; I downloaded it to my Mac and uploaded it to iCloud. After that, I was able to sideload it into SideStore, which installed Apollo on my phone.

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Finally, once I was logged in to my Reddit account in Apollo, I had to create a custom “app” for Reddit and Imgur in order to get a client ID, which allowed Apollo to talk to the Reddit and Imgur APIs. Then, finally, I was ready to waste the rest of my day scrolling.

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! You might just have enough patience to sideload an app onto your iPhone.

But there’s more, because of course there is. This laborious process only got Apollo onto my phone in the first place – because of the way this iteration of sideloading works – with the rinky-dink combination of burner IDs and an expired app (plus much more) – Apollo will expire after seven days.

You can tell SideStore to refresh it, but usually this has to be done manually. I don’t have the patience for that, so I created a custom workflow in the Shortcuts app to automatically refresh SideStore and Apollo every night when I’m asleep. This works well most of the time but requires me to have both Wi-Fi and the custom VPN connected.

The struggle is real

Even once I successfully sideloaded Apollo onto my phone, there were (and still are) numerous irritating issues to contend with:

• While Wi-Fi and the VPN must be connected for your apps to update in SideStore, very often SideStore will refuse to refresh, even when everything is present and correct.
• SideStore’s guide links to a direct download for the JitterbugPair command line process, but my Mac automatically blocked this and refused to run it. I had to download the parent Jitterbug app and generate a pairing file in a different way.
• SideStore’s required refresh process often got stuck halfway, meaning it would never be able to automatically refresh itself and had to be reinstalled.
• As the process is (clearly) confusing, I would sometimes accidentally sideload an app using AltStore instead of SideStore. This meant SideStore couldn’t refresh the app, which in turn meant it would expire after a week.
• Updating your iOS device will sometimes – but not always – break SideStore, meaning you have to do the entire installation process all over again.

And, of course, there’s the issue that you’re downloading random apps and files from the internet, none of which have gone through the App Store review process.

I’m such a Reddit addict that for me, this convoluted process was ultimately worth it. I have my favorite Reddit client back and don’t have to use the official app anymore. But I hope I never have to do it again.

Apple is right

More than anything, this whole rigmarole has given me a new appreciation of the App Store and a fresh understanding of why Apple opposes sideloading. The App Store gets a lot of flak for its rules and regulations, but it makes downloading and running apps remarkably easy. You don’t even need to think about it – you just download an app and there it is, working perfectly on your device.

Sideloading – at least in my case – was the polar opposite of that. It required all manner of winding and tortuous steps, and even when you follow them to the letter, things can and will go wrong. Granted, it would be different if Apple allowed sideloading—or “alternative app stores” like it does in the EU—but even where it’s allowed, the process is far more convoluted than installing an app from the App Store.

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I can see why Apple hates all this. The company’s products are meant to be simple and easy to use – so simple, in fact, that a grandparent could pick up an iPhone and install an app. Do you really think your grandparents or even your parents would have the wherewithal to install an expired app using a sideloading process, burner Apple IDs, and pairing files, then set up a custom shortcut to ensure everything keeps running without expiring?

Not only does sideloading go against Apple’s penchant for simplicity, but it has huge potential to frustrate the company’s users. And what user is going to have a favorable opinion of your product if a key part of it—installing apps—can be so irritating? (And that’s to say nothing of the potential for viruses and malware.)

That said, none of that is going to stop me from using Apollo. I’m prepared to put up with the rickety sideloading process for as long as it takes. But I can absolutely understand why people want to steer clear—and why Apple has opposed it for so long.