Android

Dens for Android runs on your phone: chat, DMs and calls, which keep going with the screen off. It’s Dens itself, running on the phone as it runs on a computer, so the phone keeps its own keys. It can’t host a den.

It needs Android 12 or later. It isn’t in Google Play or any other store: you download it from Dens’s release site, and it updates itself from there, asking you before each update.

Install it

Download it

In your phone’s browser, open releases.dens.chat/dens.apk. The browser warns that the file might be harmful, as it does for any app from outside a store. Download it anyway.

To verify it wasn’t tampered with

Check it on a computer before you install it. That proves it’s the app Dens’s release process built, and not a copy someone swapped in on the way. You need cosign for it. Dens checks every update this way by itself.

version=$(curl -fsSL https://releases.dens.chat/version)
curl -fsSLO "https://releases.dens.chat/releases/$version/checksums.txt"
curl -fsSLO "https://releases.dens.chat/releases/$version/checksums.txt.cosign.bundle"
curl -fsSLO https://releases.dens.chat/dens.apk
cosign verify-blob checksums.txt \
  --bundle checksums.txt.cosign.bundle \
  --certificate-identity https://github.com/Data-Corruption/dens.chat/.github/workflows/release.yml@refs/heads/main \
  --certificate-oidc-issuer https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com
sha256sum dens.apk
grep android-arm64.apk checksums.txt

cosign prints Verified OK, and the last two lines start with the same checksum. If they don’t, a new version may have come out in between: run it again. Then copy that dens.apk to your phone and open it there.

Let the browser install apps

Open the download. The first time, Android says your phone isn’t allowed to install unknown apps from this source. Tap Settings, turn on Allow from this source, and go back.

On a newer Galaxy phone, Samsung’s Auto Blocker blocks it instead. Turn it off in Settings, under Security and privacy, then Auto Blocker, and leave it off: while it’s on, Dens can’t install its updates either.

Install it

Android asks whether to install Dens: tap Install. Play Protect may offer to scan it first, which sends the app’s details to Google. Scanning it is up to you.

Open Dens

Open Dens from your apps. The first time, it asks you to set a local password, as any install does. Then join a den with your invite, or sign in to one you’re in already, as another device.

Keeping it connected

Dens keeps your dens connected while it isn’t on screen, which is what brings your messages and notifications while the phone sleeps. A notification says it’s running, and Android may tuck that away. It costs about 1% of the battery a night for each den, in our tests.

Two settings stop it:

Battery set to Restricted. Android cuts Dens off as soon as it leaves the screen, and nothing arrives until you open it again. Leave Dens at Optimized or Unrestricted: in Settings, Apps, Dens, then Battery.
Galaxy phones put apps to sleep that they think you don’t use. Put Dens among Never auto sleeping apps: in Settings, Battery, then Background usage limits.

For notifications of DMs and mentions, turn them on in Dens’s settings (Notifications).

Updating

Dens checks for an update once a day. When it finds one, it downloads it, about 25 MB on whatever connection the phone has, checks that Dens’s release process signed it, and says so in a notification and on Dens’s home. Tap either, and Android asks you to confirm. The first time, Android asks you to let Dens install apps, as it asked of your browser: turn on Allow from this source for Dens.

You can turn the checks off in Settings, under System.

Google’s developer verification

Google is starting to make phones check that an app installed from outside its store comes from a developer who registered with Google: in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand since September 30, 2026, and Google plans it everywhere in 2027. Dens’s developers haven’t registered, since that would make installing Dens depend on Google’s say-so. On a phone that checks, Android installs Dens only through its advanced flow, which you set up once, in Developer options: it makes you wait a day, then lets you allow apps from unverified developers for 7 days or for good. Choose for good: with 7 days, Dens’s updates fail once they run out, and its notification says where to turn the flow back on.

Phones without Google’s certification, such as those running GrapheneOS or LineageOS, check none of this.

Removing it

Uninstall Dens as you would any app. That deletes everything it keeps on the phone, its keys among them, and Android’s backups and its transfers to a new phone leave Dens’s data out. Your accounts in your dens stay: on a new phone, or a computer, install Dens and sign in as another device, with your den password or a recovery code (Join a den).

Install Join a den