The first limitation to the excellent use of any Blackberry OS10 phones like the Blackberry Z10, Q10 and Q5 is apps. Seems fewer developers are interested in making Blackberry apps for these phones. Am not saying the Blackberry Z10, Q10 & Q5 are not great phones, but often times you can’t find the apps you needed so the only solution will be to sideload Android apps onto your Blackberry Z10, Q10 and Q5 phones.
In fact the ability to sideload Android apps onto Blackberry OS10 phones makes it a great phone to use. It will be like using Android and blackberry OSes on one phone since you can use both blackberry apps and Android apps on the same device. You should take advantage of this if you already owned these devices or looking to acquire one.
To Sideload an app to blackberry Z10, Q10 & Q5 is simply the process of installing converted Android apps (from .apk to .bar) on your Blackberry Z10, Q10 and Q5 devices. I already described this process in a blog post I published some while ago on this blog titled “Cannot install Whatsapp on Blackberry Z10?” .
How to sideload Android apps onto Blackberry Z10, Q10 & Q5
To sideload Android apps onto Blackberry Z10,Q10 & Q5 you will need the following programs;
- Java Runtime Environment
- DDPB installer or vnBB10 (which is more recent utility for sideloading Android apps onto BB10 and Playbook)
- .BAR apps you want to sideload – Link
For the sake of this tutorial I will use DDPB installer though vnBB10 works on almost same principle. So after downloading and installing the DDPB installer on your PC; go to your BB10 Settings by swiping down from the Home screen.
Select Security and Privacy > Development Mode and turn on Use Development Mode and enter a 4 digit password. Note this password and the Development IP Address because you will need them below.
Launch the DDPB installer program you just installed on your Pc and connect your Blackberry Z10, Q10 or Q5 to your computer via USB, enter the IP address and password you noted above and click the connect button to connect your Blackberry phone to your PC.
If the password and IP address are correct your BB10 will authenticate and connect to your PC. Click the “Add” button at the right top corner and locate the .bar app you want to sideload onto your BB10.Select the .bar app and click “Install”.
Note you can sideload popular Android apps like Skype, Badoo, Viber, Instagram, Google Chrome and even Android games like Temple Runs, Candy Crush Saga, Subway surfers, fruit ninja etc. Then you can turn off the Use Development Mode when you are done sideloading Android apps onto Blackberry Z10, Q10 & Q5.
After successfully following these steps you should have sideloaded the Android app to your BB10. DDPB should have notified you it was successfully installed, but check to see if the app now displays on your mobile.
Note you can’t install Android .apk files directly. You must convert them to a .BAR file.
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Wonderful post! Well the first thing is i own a samsung galaxy duos and a my brother own a blackberry z10. So it means i can easily sideload the android apps from my phone to my brothers phones. I’m gonna try out the methods in this article.
thanks
Yes you can be able to install android apps though in a converted .bar format to your brother’s Blackberry Z10.
My friend owns a blackberry phone. I think it’s an old model mobile phone. I don’t know the model of his phone. Will these android apps run on his phone too?
Thanks for the tutorial man.
awesome tutorial, it will be a great and it will also help blackberry not to loose some clients to android since some apps can work on android
Nice tutorial bro, but am not a fan of Blackberry. Well this will be a usefull tip for Blackberry10 users. There is a saying that “if its not Android it can never be Android :-D”
No it only runs on the latest Android devices running on BB10 OS version like the Z10, Q10 and Q5
the only way Blackberry will survive especially in this Android era will be to find a way to make their device compatible with Android.
I wonder who\made that saying…all the same there are still blackberry core fans out there.
Hey Nwosu,
Nice “How to Guide” on BB. Unfortunately I’m not a fan of BB even though I use an outdated BB Storm 1. I’m sure some of my fan will enjoy it though and that’s why I have shared it with them.
Thanks for the guide though.
Sam
hi Nwosu,
very informative tips to sideload android apps into BlackBerry! I’m a big fan of android and don’t know why people still use BlackBerry phones! :D
thanks for sharing :)
Please how can i download Skype, Viber, Instagram and Google Chrome on my BlackBerry Z10 without buying them from BlackBerry App World?
Upgrade your Z10 to 10.2.1 Blackberry OS and you can be able to install Android apps directly from Google Play Store.
@Nwosu sir I can’t be able to install android on my Q5.Sir what can I do about it.But I avnt update my Os to the latest version.thanks
I use z10 version 10.3.1 n I can’t download 4rm Google playstore