We all use the Appstore on our iPhones to download the apps that we need. Since Apple does a lot of background security checks before the apps are posted on the AppStore, which means that downloading the apps from AppStore is safe.

The problem comes when you want to install an app on your iPhone from any other place than the App Store. iPhones aren’t designed to let you simply install any apps from any other place, which we see on Android devices.

However, it is not impossible to install an app on the iPhones outside of the app store, but it isn’t an easy process. There is a whole process involved that you need to go through in order to install an app on your iPhone and make your iPhone trust the source and the app.

This restriction is for users’ safety so that users don’t end up installing malware apps or viruses that can cause the iPhones to malfunction.

If you trust the developer of the app, or if it’s an app from your organization that you need to install on your iPhone, then you can try the process of installing an app on your iPhone from a different source other than the App Store.

Manually Trusting an App

On iPhones, we can do the manual process of making the phone trust the source and the app that we are installing on the phone. These apps are known as the Enterprise apps and usually, it is from an educational organization or a corporation’s internal app that they need you to use on your iPhone.

If your organization uses a Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution for distributing the apps to the users to install them on their iPhones. Then trust is automatically established for the enterprise apps on iPhone. However, if you want to manually install an enterprise app, then you’d need to manually trust it to start using it and installing it on your iPhone.

If you try to open an enterprise app that you have installed manually on your iPhone, then you’d see that you can’t open the app and you will get an error that says that it is an untrusted developer.

So, what we need to do is, to trust the developer once, and then you will be able to install the enterprise apps on your iPhone from the same developer.

In order to trust an app, you need to follow through with the tutorial below.

1. On your iPhone, go to the settings app and then General.
2. Scroll down and tap on Profile and Device Management, this should be under the VPN option.
   
3. Inside it, you will see a section for Enterprise Apps. There you will see a profile for the developer of the enterprise app in question, tap on it to trust it.
4. A confirmation prompt will appear on your screen, to confirm to trust the app and the developer. Tap the Trust (developer name) option to establish trust with the developer.

Your iPhone will remember the developer as trusted until you manually delete all the apps by tapping on the Delete App from the profiles. Once you have trusted the developer manually, you don’t need to repeat the process for any other enterprise apps from the same developer.

Also, make sure that you have an active internet connection during the whole process of establishing trust for the developer. The internet connection is required to verify the app developer’s certificate. If you try to do it offline, then your iPhone will display a Not verified message underneath the app. You need to tap the Verify App button whenever you have an active internet connection on your iPhone. In case you are using a firewall while verifying the app, make sure to configure it to allow connections to https://ppq.apple.com.

Apple does a periodic check-in of the developer’s certificate, so you need to reverify the app developer’s certificate periodically in order to continue using the app and maintain the trust for the enterprise apps that you are using on your iPhone. You will see a notification message that indicates the trust will expire soon. In order to reverify, you need to connect your device to the internet and then ap on the Verify App button to simply launch the app.

That’s it, you are all set, now you can use any app that you need for your school or organization or business. By doing this, you can also help your friend who is trying to develop an app and wants you to test it.