Meshtastic docs now tell Obtainium users to choose a specific APK variant
A tiny docs tweak now tells Obtainium to install only Meshtastic’s google or fdroid APK, cutting down on mismatched Android installs.
Meshtastic just removed a small but annoying source of Android setup errors: Obtainium users are now told to pin the app to either the google or fdroid APK variant. That means the updater will pull the right build from the GitHub release page instead of guessing between channels, which is exactly the kind of detail that saves people from chasing a fake firmware problem when the real issue is a mismatched app install.
The Android installation page now spells it out in plain terms. In Obtainium’s “Filter APKs by regular expression” field, users should enter either google or fdroid so only the chosen variant gets installed. The same page also reminds users that Obtainium downloads APKs from the GitHub release page and that Android’s unknown-apps permission has to be enabled before installation. Meshtastic says its Android app is available through its F-Droid repo and Google Play Store, and it supports connections to radios over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi on the same network, or USB OTG. The minimum supported Android version is 8.0, Oreo from 2017.
The reason this matters is that Meshtastic’s Android packaging is already split in multiple directions. Recent release assets include files such as androidApp-fdroid-x86-release.apk, androidApp-fdroid-x86_64-release.apk, and androidApp-google-release.aab, while the repository itself keeps separate androidApp/src/google and androidApp/src/main trees. Meshtastic’s release-process documentation also says releases may be distributed via GitHub or third parties like F-Droid and Obtainium, so the app has never been a single-channel package in practice. A March 2020 GitHub issue asking for the Android app to land on F-Droid was opened and later closed, which shows this multi-path distribution has been part of the project’s reality for years.
For users, the next step is simple: open Obtainium and make sure the filter matches the build you actually want, google or fdroid, then confirm unknown-apps permission is turned on before you install. If you sideload Meshtastic Android or keep updates self-managed, that one field matters more than it looks. It keeps Obtainium from drifting across variants, keeps the update path predictable, and keeps the support hunt focused where it belongs, on the mesh, not on the app package.
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