Personal APK distribution

Getting a self-built APK from a build machine onto one’s own Android phone over the internet, scriptably and without stores. Platform install mechanics (permissions, silent updates, Auto Blocker, Shizuku) live in Android sideloading and silent updates.

Obtainium — the phone-side keystone

Obtainium (actively maintained; v1.6.9 on 2026-07-16) watches arbitrary sources for new APK versions, notifies, and installs.

Sources: GitHub/GitLab/Codeberg releases, F-Droid repos, Jenkins, direct APK link, and a generic HTML source that scrapes any page or directory listing for APK links (link-filter regex; version detection via link/ETag/partial-APK hash or a version-extraction regex). Custom request headers supported. Cleartext HTTP sources work (broken TLS is the problem case, not plain HTTP).
Private GitHub repos: works with a classic PAT (repo scope) entered in the GitHub source settings — the token is sent on asset downloads too (fixed in v0.14.11-beta, issue #857). Avoid fine-grained tokens: open 403 bug (#2694).
Update flow: background poll (default 6 h) → notification → ~2–3 taps; with Shizuku as installer and background updates enabled, zero-tap silent updates (conditions: Android 12+, Obtainium is installer-of-record, app targets a recent SDK). Background installs are async and best-effort — failures produce no notification.

Distribution rails, ranked by fit

Private GitHub Releases — least infrastructure: gh release create v<x> app.apk from the build machine; 2 GiB/asset, no bandwidth caps; pair with Obtainium’s GitHub source + classic PAT. A dedicated assets-only private repo keeps source off GitHub.
Tailscale serve + Obtainium HTML — strongest privacy (APK never leaves own infra), works over cellular via NAT traversal/DERP. Free plan (post April 2026): 6 users, unlimited devices. Gotchas: serving files/directories headlessly requires the open-source tailscaled variant (GUI variants only proxy ports — front a python3 -m http.server instead); Android allows one active VPN at a time. (Both plan limits and the variant gotcha re-verified against tailscale.com on 2026-07-17.)
Personal F-Droid repo — the only zero-tap path without Shizuku: F-Droid client 1.19+ (2024-02) does unattended background updates on Android 12+ for apps it installed (installer-of-record). Cost: highest setup (fdroidserver via brew/pip, repo keystore, fdroid update per release; least tested on macOS). Alternative clients: Droid-ify, Neo Store.
Firebase App Distribution — free, 2 GiB limit, CLI/Gradle upload, tester email + App Tester app; ~3–4 taps per release, no silent updates, every build goes to Google. Weak fit for a solo self-owned workflow.
Cloudflare Tunnel — named tunnels need a domain on Cloudflare and TLS terminates at their edge; quick tunnels mint a random URL per process (unusable as a stable watcher source). ngrok free: 1 GB/month cap + interstitial (bypassable via header). Both dominated by Tailscale here.

Consumer channels

Taildrop (Tailscale): tailscale file cp camera.apk <phone>: — the APK lands in the phone’s Downloads with a notification, over the tailnet from anywhere (no shared network or wireless-debugging session, unlike adb). Manual push, no watcher, system-installer confirm every time — the right tool for one-off debug builds, not a steady-state update rail.
Telegram bot: sendDocument takes any file type; hosted Bot API caps uploads at 50 MB (self-hosted telegram-bot-api server: 2000 MB). One curl per release; phone gets a real push; ~4 taps to installed (Telegram is the install-unknown-apps grantee). Best as a “build shipped” notification bell alongside a real rail.
Gmail/email: dead end — .apk is on Gmail’s block list in both directions, including inside zips and password-protected archives (policy). Outlook.com blocks it too.
Google Drive: rclone upload works, but own uploads never notify, no watcher can poll Drive’s tokenized download URLs (Obtainium has no Drive source), and Drive’s scanner false-positives APKs. Dominated.

Design rule of thumb

Notification, transport, and installer are separable concerns. The tap floor is set by the installer path (system confirm dialog unless the installer-of-record does a silent update — see Android sideloading and silent updates), not by the transport. So pick the transport for scriptability and privacy, and spend the effort on the installer side (Obtainium + Shizuku, or F-Droid repo) if zero-tap matters.