Your Android TV such as Mi Box or Nvidia Shield TV comes with the Google Play Store. And it’s pretty good. However, it only features apps that are optimized for the TV interface. But there are times when you have to sideload apps on your Android TV. For example, the other day, I wanted to install my a VPN app on my Shield TV box, so that I can watch American Netflix, but I couldn't find it on the Android TV store.  Turns out there are multiple ways to sideload apps on your Android TV, depending on whether you have Pendrive, Smartphone, WiFi or none of them. Each method has its pros and cons. Let's check them out. Shall we?
Most of the sideloaded apps won’t be visible in your native launcher, so make sure you use Sideload launcher or any Android TV launcher that supports sideloaded apps.

Sideload Apps on Android TV

Method 1. Using a flash drive  The handiest way to sideload apps on your streaming device can be via Flash drives. Most popular Android TV box such as Mi box and Nvidia Shield TV comes with a USB port. So, if you have a spare flash drive nearby, you can copy APKs from your computer, or if you are on Android, first you need to download any backup app like Apk Extractor from Google play store to extract apk of the installed app. Once you send the file to the USB stick, remove the flash drive from the smartphone/computer and plug it in the Android TV box. Once in, use any Android TV file manager such as File Commander to navigate to the USB drive and install it. Since Amazon firestick is also based on Android OS, this trick work there, however, you have to buy a three-way OTG splitter to access the flash drive, which is a hassle. Pros
  • Easy to use
  • Needs no WiFi
Cons
  • If there is no flash drive nearby, this won't work.
Method 2. Using Google drive The previous method was bit inconvenient as it requires both USB OTG adapter (since most phones have Type C port) as well as a flash drive. In case you don’t have access to those, you can also use cloud-based services like Google Drive to transfer APKs from your Phone or Computer to your Android-based streaming device like Firestick or Android TV  Start by downloading the apk from APKMirror on your phone or PC. The reason we recommend APKMirror is because it’s from the reputable 'Android Police' and free of any malware. Though it's filled with a lot of Google Ads, and finding the right download is still a bit confusing.  Once you download the apk, upload it to your Google Drive account and head to your streaming device. Open File Commander or any other file explorer with cloud support and login with the same Google account which has the Apks. Download and install them. Pros
  • No hardware needed
Cons
  • Although this may sound easy, it's just too much work 
Method 3. Transfer via WiFi Since Android TV or even the Fire Stick are already always connected to the Internet, it makes sense to use wifi to transfer Apks and install them. So, to get this work, first, you need to install WiFi file transfer app on your Android TV. The app has 50MB file limit on the free version which shouldn't be the problem since most apks are smaller than that, however,  you can remove by upgrading to the paid app that costs $0.99. Use the previous two methods to install WiFi File transfer on your device. Once done, open the app, it will show you an IP address. You can type this IP address on your computer or Android phone’s browser and then just drag and drop the apk files here. Now you can transfer files from your phone and install them. Of course, you can also transfer large files like movies using this app as well. If you are on fire tv stick, you can use the Easy fire tools app to transfer apps installed on the phone or APKs directly to your fire tv stick. It works on the same principle as the previous one, however, you don't have to install the companion app on your TV as you did with WiFi File transfer. Pros
  • Easy to use
  • No hardware needed
  • Efficient for long term
Cons
  • Needs WiFi
  • Cog up the memory of both your phone and your streaming
Method 4. Use Android TV Browser You might already know, you can access the web on Android TV using web browsers like Puffin TV. So, why not use it to download apps on your Android TV? Simply, open Puffin TV and head to ApkMirror, perform a quick search for the apps you want to download and you will be able to download the apk after battling intrusive ads on the website. Pros
  • Easy to use
  • Save a lot of time
Cons
  • Intrusive Ads
Method 5. Use Aptoide TV Even after the presence of Play Store on the Android tv and Amazon Store on the Fire TV stick, the app available for these devices is quite and since most apps are not fully optimized. Yet, these unoptimized apps work fine (like WiFi file transfer we use in method #3) on Android TV. Enter Aptoide TV, an alternative Play Store for Android tv as well as the Firestick. To access unoptimized Android apps on your Android TV, you can use Aptoide TV store, Yes this store is capable enough to be called as a competitor to play store on the tv ecosystem. Use any of the methods discussed to install Aptoide TV apk and open it. Once in, now you can download and install apps which are natively not available on the play store but good enough to be on android tv. The only downside to this store is that it has all sorts of apps without any guideline.  Pros
  • Auto-update
  • Efficient for long term
Cons
  • Some apps are pirated
If we miss out any better way to sideload apps on Android TV, share it with us in the comments below.