glim
The app Install Support Questions
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Installing

How to put Glim on your phone.

Glim isn't in an app store. You download it from this page. Your phone will warn you two or three times — that's normal, and it doesn't mean anything is wrong.

There's nothing to download yet.

The first version isn't finished. When it is, the download button will appear right here. Everything below is how it will work.

One email, nothing else. No newsletter, no countdowns, no "just checking in". Reply to it and you're off the list.

You need

An Android phone.

Android 8 or newerAnything from about 2017 onwards. iPhones can't install it — sorry.
80 MB of free spaceLess than one video. You can check in Settings → Storage.
A phone that's yoursIf your workplace set the phone up, installs may be locked. We can't get around that.

The four steps

Download, allow, install, open.

  1. Download the file

    Tap the download button. Your phone may say the file can't be downloaded securely or can harm your device. Tap Download anyway. It says that about every app that isn't from a store.

  2. Open it, and allow it

    Open the file from your notifications, or from Files → Downloads. Your phone will say it isn't allowed to install apps from this source. Tap Settings, turn on Allow from this source, then press back.

    That switch belongs to your browser, not to Glim. You can turn it off again once Glim is installed.

  3. Ignore the Google warning

    Google will say the app wasn't scanned or is unsafe. Tap More details, then Install anyway. Google has no record of Glim because Glim isn't on their store — that's on purpose.

  4. Open Glim and write down your words

    Pick a username, and the app shows you a short list of words. Write them on paper and keep them somewhere safe. They're the only way back into your account.

No adsNo trackingNo AI trainingNothing soldNo algorithm

If something goes wrong

What your phone might say.

"App not installed"An older copy of Glim is already on your phone. Uninstall it, then try again — but read the box below first.
"Can't install from this source"You opened the file from a different app than the one you allowed. Open it from Files instead, or allow that app too.
"Built for an older version of Android"That's fine. Tap install and carry on.
Nothing happens when you tap the fileThe download didn't finish. Download it again — if the file is tiny, it's broken.
Messages arrive lateYour phone is putting Glim to sleep. Go to Settings → Apps → Glim → Battery and choose Unrestricted. Xiaomi, Huawei and Samsung phones need this most.
"Glim keeps stopping"Tell us — Glim sends us no crash reports, so nobody knows it broke unless you say so. Include your phone model: hello@glimapp.xyz.

Don't uninstall Glim without your words.

Your account lives on your phone, not on our servers. We never keep a copy of it, because keeping a copy would mean being able to read your posts.

So if you uninstall the app or lose the phone, the account is gone — unless you wrote those words down. Find them before you uninstall, reset the phone, or give it away.

Updates

Glim won't update itself.

When there's a new version, it appears on this page. Install it the same way, over the old one, and your photos, messages and account stay exactly where they are.

That's a bit more effort than tapping "Update". It also means nothing changes on your phone without you knowing.

One person makes Glim in his spare hours, and pays for it himself. So updates come when they're ready rather than on a schedule, and sometimes that means months. Nothing gets rushed out to keep investors happy, because there aren't any.

That's all of it.

Four steps and a few warnings. After that it works like any other app — except nobody is watching.

What the app does Tell me what broke