A television app you install yourself.

Get Ice scream on your television

Ice scream installs from a file you download here, not from an app store. It takes about five minutes, you need to change one setting on the television first, and you only ever do it once.

Version 1.0.23 MBAndroid 8.0 or newer

How to install it

Your television will refuse at first

Android blocks installing anything that did not come from its own store until you allow it, once, for the app doing the installing.

Google Play Protect will show a warning

It says it does not recognise the developer. That is what it says about every app not distributed through the Play Store, including this one. Choose to install anyway.

Using the Downloader app

Fire TV and Android TV. The usual way, and the one to try first.

  1. Install Downloader from your television’s own app store. It is free.
  2. Open Settings on the television, find Downloader in the list of apps, and allow it to install apps. On Android TV this lives under Device Preferences → Security & restrictions → Unknown sources. On Fire TV it is My Fire TV → Developer options → Install unknown apps.
  3. Open Downloader and type the address into its URL box, exactly as printed: no www, no https.
  4. Press Go. The file downloads, then Downloader offers to install it. Accept.
  5. When Play Protect asks, choose to install anyway.

Using the television’s browser

Any set with a browser you can actually use — Silk, Puffin, webOS or Tizen.

  1. Allow the browser to install apps, in the same settings screen described above.
  2. Open this page on the television and select the download.
  3. Keep the file when the browser warns you about it.
  4. Open the television’s Downloads folder and select the file to install it.

The browser will warn you too

"This type of file can harm your device" appears for every .apk on every browser. Keep the file.

From a USB stick

Televisions whose browser is unusable, and anyone who would rather use a computer.

  1. Download the file on a computer using the button above.
  2. Copy it onto a USB stick and plug the stick into the television.
  3. Open a file manager on the television — most sets ship one, or install one from their store.
  4. Find the file on the stick and select it. Allow the file manager to install apps when asked.

From a phone, over the network

No USB stick to hand, and both devices on the same wifi.

  1. Install Send Files to TV on both the phone and the television. It is free on both stores.
  2. Download the file on the phone using the button above.
  3. Open the app on the television and choose to receive.
  4. Open the app on the phone, choose to send, pick the file, pick the television.
  5. On the television, open the received file to install it.

Scanning this opens these instructions on your phone. It does not download the file — a phone cannot install onto a television.

Check the file is genuine

SHA-2566efcd86f52053aa1d932477a318f21816c28123471ec8c66420569a56edf33bc

Before you install it, you can confirm the file you downloaded is byte-for-byte the one we published. Run one of these where the file landed and compare the result to the value above.

macOS
shasum -a 256 <file>
Linux
sha256sum <file>
Windows
certutil -hashfile <file> SHA256

A matching value proves the file arrived intact. It does not prove the page you got it from is ours — if you reached this page from a link you did not type yourself, check the address bar says icescream.monster.

What you need

A television that runs Android

Android TV, Google TV, or a Fire TV stick or box. Not a Roku, and not a set that only runs its own software.

Permission to install it

A one-off settings change on the television, described in the install steps. You can put it back afterwards.

About five minutes

Most of which is the file downloading over your own connection.

You only do this once

Once Ice scream is running it keeps itself current in the background. There is no reason to come back to this page, and nothing here to bookmark.

Already have Ice scream? Installing this file over it is safe — it is signed with the same key, so Android replaces it in place and your setup is kept.