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Get Aether running on your Android device with a working LLM provider. By the end of this guide you’ll have a fully functional AI agent ready to chat — and optionally, ready to run shell commands and automate tasks on your phone.
1

Download Aether

Go to the Aether GitHub Releases page and download the latest APK.
  • Choose the arm64-v8a APK (the only supported architecture).
  • Aether requires Android 8.0 (API 26) or higher.
2

Install the APK

Android blocks installations from outside the Play Store by default. Before you can install Aether, you need to grant permission:
  1. Go to Settings → Apps → Special app access → Install unknown apps.
  2. Find your browser or file manager and toggle Allow from this source on.
  3. Open the downloaded APK file and tap Install.
  4. Wait for the installation to complete, then tap Open.
3

Launch and complete onboarding

The first time you open Aether, an onboarding screen walks you through the required setup:
  • Grant Notifications permission so Aether can alert you when agent tasks complete.
  • Grant Alarm scheduling permission so Aether can run scheduled tasks.
Follow the on-screen prompts for each step. You can revisit permissions later in your Android settings.
4

Add an LLM provider

Aether needs at least one LLM provider configured before you can chat:
  1. Tap the Settings icon (⚙️) in the top-right corner of the app.
  2. Select Providers.
  3. Tap Add Provider and choose your preferred service — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek, Groq, Mistral, Cloudflare, or any other supported option.
  4. Enter your API key for that provider.
  5. Tap Save.
5

Select a model

Back on the main chat screen:
  1. Tap the model selector in the message composer bar at the bottom of the screen.
  2. Browse the list of models from your configured provider and tap the one you want to use.
6

Send your first message

Type a message in the composer and tap Send. Aether streams the response directly from your chosen LLM in real time. That’s it — you’re up and running!
Toggle Agent Mode in the composer (the robot icon) to unlock the full agentic experience. With Agent Mode enabled, Aether can execute shell commands, use CLI tools inside its Alpine Linux environment, and perform multi-step reasoning tasks — not just answer questions.
The first time you send a message with Agent Mode enabled, Aether automatically downloads and installs the Alpine Linux root filesystem in the background. This download is approximately 100 MB. Make sure you’re on Wi-Fi before enabling Agent Mode for the first time.