Obtainium overview | My favorite way to track Open Source apps

Using an RSS reader is a popular way to tack OSS apps directly from their source. Obtainium automates this process and simplifies it.
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//LINKS REFERENCED IN VIDEO:
sideofburritos.com/blog/obtai...
//NEWSLETTER SIGNUP:
sideofburritos.com/newsletter/
//MOBILE PRIVACY GUIDE
sideofburritos.com/docs/setup...
//CHAPTERS:
Intro - 00:00
How to install Obtainium - 01:23
Obtainium walkthrough - 02:28
How to add an app - 04:31
Installing app from trusted source first - 07:45
Additional features - 09:40
Updating apps example - 10:49
How to find where app source code is hosted - 11:23
Adding an F-Droid app - 12:26
Obtainium limitations - 14:16
HELP WANTED Auto updates - 15:13
Outro - 15:43
//DISCLAIMER:
This video is for educational purposes only.
#obtainium #opensource #fdroid #grapheneos

[@HP-uc8sr]

Man thank you so much, SOB, it was because of you I bought a Pixel and installed Graphene OS and now I feel more free than ever. Grateful for you and this channel, much love

[@sideofburritos]

Happy to help! One of my goals from the beginning has been to make things more approachable for anyone. I think seeing things demonstrated in a video format can help individuals get over any fears they might have of the process. Thanks for the support!

[@cameronmoore136]

Same here.

[@CodeOnBlocks]

With GrapheneOS, how do you use KZbin without NewPipe? Also, how's Google maps been?

[@cameronmoore136]

@@CodeOnBlocks I've been using NewPipe and it has its pros and cons. But one of its glaring cons is that you can't log in to your account. One of the viable yet somewhat undesirable options is to simply use KZbin through a browser, rather than a dedicated app.

[@itxmfahadkhan]

​@@sideofburritoskeep it up bruh ❤

[@closednetwork]

This is a great way to install apps directly from the repo.. and you get it faster. I'll be checking this out!

[@sideofburritos]

💯 great app for sure!

[@jsnjyn]

Good stuff 10/10. Always dropping useful videos.

[@sideofburritos]

Glad to hear I'm still delivering on that 📦

[@iTheGeo]

Always thankful for these great unique tips!

[@davesmith8101]

Thank you very much for all your videos on Graphene OS. All the videos are well explained and easy to follow.

[@Junito87]

Thanks for the tips, I wanted a substitute for the anytracker app I came across obtainium and your vudeo helped me understand how to set up the app great video

[@unknownmonkeyplayground3268]

Great content. Thank you!

[@pilot79]

Can you do a video of the Sandboxed Google Play Store on Graphene OS - how to maintain as much privacy as possible when using it. Pertinent now that Aurora has been rendered useless.

[@robw7381]

Best youtube channel I run graphene on my pixel just from this channel Thanks.

[@sideofburritos]

Thank you! Glad I was able to help convert you over, it's a great OS!

[@ozzlss]

Didn’t know about this one! Thanks!!

[@sideofburritos]

You're welcome! It's a really solid app.

[@mindsetizeverything]

simple and clean

[@sideofburritos]

My favorite kind of apps

[@dread1089]

Great app, thanks for making the video.

[@sideofburritos]

You're welcome!

[@Cat-xu4cf]

Love it, thank you

[@watermelonsalesman]

Great content

[@ZsoltDonca]

Great video, great app, will definitely give it a try! However, I don't see issue number 25 linked in the video description, as you mentioned in the video.

[@sideofburritos]

Thank you! It's listed under: //LINKS REFERENCED IN VIDEO: sideofburritos.com/blog/obtanium-overview/

[@subfighter13]

Hey. Thanks for all the great videos! What are you thoughts on using this with APKPure? Is it safe? Good alternative to aurora store for close source apps? Thanks!

[@theprivacyfox]

Really good app thanks

[@sideofburritos]

Thanks!

[@arkad7633]

any way to add Briar and openkeychain in Obtanium? Thanks for your amazing videos

[@noomondai]

Thanks so much Josh, great to see your ideas are taking hold and influencing other developers. Do you have any advice on the best way to move sms messages, contacts and phone call history to a graphene os device?

[@sideofburritos]

Hmmm, the only one I've done is contacts and for that I made this video a while ago - kzbin.info/www/bejne/hHvdcmyvh6yam68 For the other items, I've never migrated those over. With your contacts you also have an option to export the .vcf file from your current device and import that to the GrapheneOS contacts app.

[@noomondai]

Thanks for the help Josh, appreciated. Keep up the great work!

[@przvl]

good one

[@sideofburritos]

Couldn't agree more.

[@Redeemed52597]

Once again, great video! Just one suggestion: can you post the Github link to Obtanium in your description?

[@sideofburritos]

Thanks! All projects and references are always linked in the description under the section "//LINKS REFERENCED IN VIDEO:" I don't link directly to 3rd party URL's because I don't control the content on them. There's been cases in the past where YT scans URL's in the description, the content changed from what was originally hosted there and your video/channel can end up getting flagged.

[@aguano]

Thank you so much. Obtainium is just awesome and makes life so much easier! BTW and a little OT: I installed Google Play Services on my Work Profile (using Shelter and using the stock „Apps“-App GrapheneOS provides). Now today AuroraStore offers me an update for Google Play Services. Do you think it would be best to skip the update provided by Aurora Store and tell Aurora Store to ignore Google Play Services updates alltogether? Or would it be safe to install the update? Will the „Apps“-App eventually offer me that very GPS update later on? Thanks for your help and this amazing YT channel!

[@sideofburritos]

You're welcome! From what I understand with Aurora Store, best practice is to skip the update and tell aurora to ignore it. If you use Play Store, you can let it update - discuss.grapheneos.org/d/3439-update-play-services-from-play-store

[@Katya23522]

This is an older video but I just came across your videos when starting to install Fdroid. If you don't have a pixel how do you know which asset to install?

[@tentickterror8308]

legend

[@sideofburritos]

🤓

[@mmgg9242]

Hello, totally out of curiosity. When I do a system update on GrapheneOS, using a Pixel 6a. As it’s rebooting it’ll flash the Google logo, then Graphene logo, before saying “Pixel Updating” and showing a number out of about 160 apps, it’ll load and then just opens normally. However, I don’t have that many apps as I use it pretty minimalist. Is this normal? Thanks!

[@sideofburritos]

Hi there, that's completely normal, those are system apps. ``` You can go to Settings > Apps > All apps > three dots on the top right > Show System ``` discuss.grapheneos.org/d/4021-restart-and-optimizing-apps

[@plparshall]

Josh. Installed Obtanium and clicked on Signal. Was taken to the Google ply Store and asked to log in !?!?! What did I do wrong? Thought this would avoid Google - is there a better way to install Signal ??

[@jimmysmith-ru8nb]

hi, sir. graphene os can download through Cell Phone. im trying to download through window10 Laptop. but ,when connect the USB saying device not found...any help..

[@sideofburritos]

It should work if the second device is supported - grapheneos.org/install/web#prerequisites "Google Android (stock Pixel OS) and other certified Android variants" To fix your windows issue, try manually downloading the drivers - developer.android.com/studio/run/win-usb and installing them - developer.android.com/studio/run/oem-usb#InstallingDriver Mentioned here - grapheneos.org/install/web#connecting-phone

[@drrenard1277]

I love obtainium.

[@sideofburritos]

Agreed. I was amazed the first time I used it just how much easier it made the updating of manually tracked apps.

[@drrenard1277]

@@sideofburritos mind you, your last video was a link I stumbled on in trying to figure out how to get it to work

[@AcidiFy574]

I have been wondering; Isn't it time to give CalyxOS a spin Hopefully you'll try it & give some opinions & maybe a comparison with Graphene OS

[@sideofburritos]

I've considered it, but if you have a device that supports CalyxOS you can use GrapheneOS. GrapheneOS offers greater security and features that I find important, and it's the only OS I recommend and use at this time. The only additional device CalyxOS supports is the Fairphone 4 which I would not recommend from a hardware security perspective.

[@Lownwolf-sm5py]

Could you go over why its better security practice to download from github first and then add it to obtainium? My understanding from this video is that if obtainium downloads newpipe for example from the official github, it will be signed by the newpipe team and android will pin that certificate so if obtainium tries anything sketchy in the future it won't work. What benefit is there to downloading manually first?

[@JBMagination]

I assume the idea is that you can confirm your Obtainium install (or something else) isn't compromised or sending you a malicious app. The pinning of the app certificate alongside Android's downgrade protection means that it's far less likely for Obtainium to be able to do anything if the app is already installed, but if it's not then a hypothetical malicious Obtainium certificate could end up being pinned for that app and in that event any update would (likely) continue to be compromised.

[@SmedleyButler1]

I can't figure out how to 1) checksum verify github zip files (eg "pdf converter everyone raves qbout by Swatistar") in my android (with hashdroid thats self explanatory). Where's the signature from the zipfile? 2) how to install the apk after ive opened the zipfile (via foogle folders) 3) side, are you a programmer or have you verified with trustworthy and knowledgeable programmers you know, that Neostore truly is the safer fdroid client or how you can be sure github updates are safe?

[@mmgg9242]

How secure is obtainium? What sort of info does it hold on users and app data?

[@sideofburritos]

Nothing that I'm aware of. The source code is available here for review - github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium

[@itxmfahadkhan]

How i can Get Vanadium Browser

[@philrose7716]

Didn't get a video this week 😭

[@saisatish9207]

How to install vanadium on android devicea

[@experiment54]

You didn't check the app to verify its the genuine one via the hash certificate. Why?

[@dildohorn2282]

I have installed 100+ apps on my device. No way to manually add them into optain. 🤣 But I am wondering if it wasnt possible to scan the device for all installed apps and then trying to find them in f-droid, g-droid, and other repos, stores, websites ... . Users then could check if the assignments are correct and then all would be fine. 🙂

[@blind5211]

the real question is, is there a way to make Obtainium update itself automatically? 🤔 cause I would definitely need that, with how forgetful I am EDIT: nvm I should've watched more first LOL

[@damskrz791]

hi josh, but how i get gitlab apps working???

[@sideofburritos]

You can add it like any other app. If you add the follow for Auroa - gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/AuroraStore/ it will work. It's likely the issue you're running into is that the developers aren't publishing the APK to aurora. You can check by going to the GitLab repo -> Deployments -> Releases, and seeing if they publish the APK. If we check for Aurora store, the APK is there which is why it works - gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/AuroraStore/-/releases

[@gmt500]

Is it possible to use this method to download ALL of your apps? I'm going to probably use a few mainstream apps in a seperate profile on my grapheneos install like Spotify and Discord and my banking app but I quite like this method of cataloguing and monitoring for updates. Would you know if Obtanium allows for more big-tech type apps or financial apps?

[@sideofburritos]

At this time, no. There is an issue open on GitHub mentioning Google Play as a source, but I imagine that is a difficult feature to implement - github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium/issues/343

[@Noctarc]

In the title, the description and in the video itself you mistyped Obtainium :D

[@jaylils]

I wish you had a discord or a matrix server

[@sideofburritos]

Synchronous communication takes a lot time, so I try to stick to asynchronous.

[@jaylils]

@@sideofburritos it so hard leaving Google pay! I had to force myself to tell me it's fake. That's the only thing I miss about Google OS

[@mbvalency]

is it just me or should the title be "Obtainium..."? Other than that, thanks for the great content!

[@sideofburritos]

That wouldn't be as ideal for SEO, I try to fit in a few more keywords that might show up in results.

[@Lownwolf-sm5py]

​@@sideofburritosI believe he's talking about the spelling of obtainium

[@JamesMowery]

I also struggled to find this app due to the misspelling in the title of this video. Please fix it @sideofburritos: "Obtainium" not "Obtanium". Might impact the performance of your video as well, FYI.

[@1vbAPiYk]

Too bad you never mentioned the ever present "rate limit exceeded" error, which makes updates impossible