Install on a Portal

There are two ways to get Immortal onto a Portal: the provisioning kit (recommended) or a build from source.

The easy path: the provisioning kit

The provisioning kit does everything in one double-click: it installs Immortal, optionally sets it as the home screen and screensaver, pre-grants permissions, fixes the first-gen installer, and can freeze OS updates so the setup sticks. It fetches the latest release automatically (and even downloads adb for you if needed), and it's fully reversible.

→ Follow the full step-by-step walkthrough: Provisioning a Portal — it covers downloading the kit, enabling ADB, the prompts you'll see, how to verify it worked, and troubleshooting.

The gist: enable Settings → Debug → ADB Enabled on the Portal, connect it over USB-C, double-click Provision-Portal, and tap Allow on the Portal. To undo, double-click Restore-Portal.

Build from source

./gradlew :app:assembleDebug
adb install -r app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk
adb shell am start -n com.immortal.launcher/.HomeActivity

Release builds must be signed with one stable key

In-place self-update is signature-checked, so every release must be signed with the same key. See Releasing for the signing setup. Debug builds are fine for trying things out on a device you provision by hand.

First-gen Portals need one extra thing

The original Portal+ (Gen-1, Android 9) and the Portal TV have a broken built-in installer dialog. The provisioning kit fixes this automatically and the fix survives reboots — but it's worth understanding what's going on. See First-gen Portals.