What is sideloading?

Sideloading is installing an app directly — without going through the App Store or Google Play. For developers and QA teams it's daily routine: every pre-release build that reaches a tester's phone is sideloaded.

Sideloading on Android

Fully supported: download an APK, allow unknown apps, install. That's why beta distribution on Android is trivially easy.

Sideloading on iOS

Apple only allows it through controlled channels: ad-hoc builds (registered UDIDs), enterprise certificates, development installs via Xcode — or TestFlight. An OTA link makes the allowed cases feel effortless.

Legitimate uses

• Beta testing before release;
• Client demos and stakeholder previews;
• Internal company tools;
• CI/CD build verification on real devices.

IPALinked exists for exactly these: upload a build, share a link, done.