How to download apps onto chromecast

He comes from a science writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. After hours, you can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi. Marshall Honorof. Topics Google. See all comments 1. Wow, this is pointless. If you're unfamiliar with installing apps, follow this guide. Now, open the File Commander app, and on the initial start page, select "Cloud," then follow the prompts to add a cloud storage account to the file browser.

We recommend going with Google Drive since you already have a Google account Chromecast requires you log into one and it comes with plenty of free storage. In order to install an app from outside of the Play Store, you'll need to switch on developer mode first. Scroll over to your profile photo and click it to uncover the Settings app shortcut, then click that.

Back out to the main Settings page, then scroll to and select "Apps. Here, you'll find the File Commander app as a potential source.

Click it and, after heeding the warning on the page, flip the toggle to blue in order to enable its ability to install unknown apps.

Now you'll need to take the APK file you're trying to sideload and upload it to your cloud storage account. File Commander will provide a web address for you to access on your smartphone or computer, and you can upload the file directly through your browser. Select the file and choose "Install. Note that if you're enrolled in Google's Advanced Protection program , you'll be blocked from installing the app at this point.

If you insist on proceeding, you'll need to unenroll; the process is just a couple of clicks but it may take a few hours to propagate through the system. Either way, find the app you want, download that APK, and put it in your Google Drive in a place you can find it.

A folder of some sort will make this simpler. There are quite a few and I tested multiple that work for this use case, but the one that was easiest to get around and works each and every time for me is File Commander.

It is not only easy, but it is also not really putting you into some alternate mode on your Chromecast. Instead, you are simply unlocking an additional menu where you can make some more-advanced changes to the underlying functionality of Android TV. Again, you can turn all of this off at the end of this whole process after you have what you want installed if this makes you feel unsecured.

This change is simply allowing your file manager to stage and install an app you will choose from Google Drive in the next step. Now, head back home, go under your applications, and open up File Commander.

Navigate to that APK file, click the center button to select it, and you will see the application begin staging and then ask if you want to install the app.