Google services are already on every cloud phone, so apps arrive the normal way, through the Play Store. For anything the store does not carry, you can drop an APK straight onto the phone.
From the Play Store
Open the phone, open the Play Store, and sign in with a Google account, as you would on a new physical phone. Installs, updates and the account's purchases work as usual. The Google account you use is yours and lives on the phone; we never see its password.
From an APK
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Have the APK on the device you are using
A file ending in
.apk, downloaded from the developer or built by you, up to 256 MB. -
Tap Install APK on the phone's screen in the app
Choose the file. It is sent to the phone and installed there; the phone needs to be online.
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Find it in the phone's app list
It behaves like any other installed app from then on, including updates if it has its own updater.
Any APK compatible with the phone's Android version and architecture will install; a failed install says why.
Files you upload with Send to phone are not installed automatically, even if they are APKs; use Install APK for those. Play Protect on the phone, and the app's own checks, can still refuse an APK after it is installed.
Some apps will refuse
A cloud phone is not a certified retail handset. It reports itself as an emulator-class device and is not Play Protect certified, so some apps warn about it, behave differently, or decline to run. Banking, payment, some streaming and anti-fraud apps are the usual ones, and turning on root makes more of them cautious. We cannot make an app accept the phone. An app says my device is not supported has more.
Only install what you trust. An APK from outside the store has not been checked by anyone. The phone is isolated from other phones and from your own devices, but it still has your accounts and files on it.
Still stuck? Write to us and we will answer.