Install
Installing Brizeet on Android
Brizeet is not on the Play Store yet, so you install it from a file. Android will try to stop you twice, and on both occasions the safe-looking button is the wrong one. Here is exactly what you will see.
The four steps
On the phone you want it on — not on a computer. The whole thing takes about two minutes on a decent connection.
- Tap the download button. Your browser saves a
.apkfile, the way it would save a photo. - Open it from the download notification, or from Files → Downloads.
- Allow this one app when Android asks. This is per-app and per-browser; it is not a setting you leave switched on for everything.
- Tap Install, then Install anyway if Play Protect asks.
Nothing below asks you to turn off a security feature permanently. Every permission here is scoped to one app and can be withdrawn afterwards in Settings.
1. Chrome says the file may be harmful
Chrome shows this for every .apk, from every site, because it cannot tell one from another. It is a category warning, not a verdict about this file.
2. “Allow from this source”
When you open the file, Android asks whether this particular app — your browser, or Files — may install other apps. It sends you to a Settings screen with one switch on it.
- Tap Settings in the dialog.
- Turn on Allow from this source.
- Press back. The install screen is waiting where you left it.
This grants one app the ability to install, not the whole phone. You can switch it off again afterwards under Settings → Apps → Special app access → Install unknown apps, and Brizeet keeps working.
3. Play Protect blocks it
This is the one that stops most people. Play Protect scans apps it has not seen before, and Brizeet is new enough that it has not seen this one. The dialog is red, the wording is severe, and the large, comfortable button is Cancel.
These are diagrams, not screenshots: Android redraws these dialogs between versions and manufacturers, so the wording on your phone may differ slightly. The shape does not — there is always a prominent way to stop and a quieter way to continue.
Checking the file, if you want to
You are being asked to install a binary from a domain you had not heard of last week. That deserves a way to check it, so here is the SHA-256 of the file this page links to:
Compare it with certutil -hashfile brizeet-latest.apk SHA256 on Windows, or shasum -a 256 brizeet-latest.apk on macOS and Linux.
What this proves, and what it does not. A match means the bytes you received are the bytes that were published — nothing was corrupted or altered on the way to you. It says nothing about who built the file, because the number and the file come from the same place. Only a signing key proves authorship, and Brizeet does not have a published one yet. If that matters to you, wait for the Play Store release.
Updates
Brizeet installs as com.brizeet.app. When a new build comes out, download it from this page and open it — it installs over the old one. You stay signed in, and nothing you had waiting is lost. There is no need to uninstall first.
Because it is not on the Play Store, updates are not automatic. The app tells you when a newer build exists.
Why isn’t this on the Play Store yet?
Because Google requires a new developer account to run a closed test with a dozen testers, continuously, for two weeks before it will consider the app for public release. That clock is running, and until it finishes this file is the only way in.
It is not a permanent decision and nothing about the app depends on staying off the store. iOS is behind that again — there is no iOS build yet at all.
If it will not install
- “App not installed”
- Almost always an older Brizeet already on the phone that was installed from a different file. Uninstall it and install this one. You will be signed out and can sign straight back in.
- “Not compatible with your device”
- The main download is built for 64-bit phones. On an older or 32-bit device, use the universal build instead — it is larger and installs on anything running Android 7.0 or newer.
- The download stops partway
- It resumes. Start it again from the same link and your browser picks up where it stopped rather than beginning again.
- Maps are grey once it is installed
- That is on our side, not yours, and the rest of the app works — type addresses instead of picking them on a map. It usually fixes itself; tell us if it does not.
Anything else, write to [email protected] and say which phone and which Android version. A person reads it.