Trouble installing Aura?
Most install problems come down to one thing, and there's a fix for each. You don't have to wait for it — Aura runs in your browser too.
You can use Aura right now — no install
Aura runs in any browser, on a phone or a computer, with the same account. Post and browse gigs, check your radar, manage your twin, your wallet and your profile. Nothing to download, nothing to allow.
One exception: your messages are encrypted with a key that only your devices hold, so to read them in a browser you'll need your chat backup recovery code. The app walks you through it under Settings → Chat backup.
“App not installed” or “Can't install”
This is the one almost everybody hits, and it isn't your phone misbehaving. The build on Google Play and the build you download from this site carry different signatures. Android treats a signature as proof of who made an app, so it refuses to replace one with the other — even though both are Aura. It won't tell you that; it just says the install failed.
The fix is to remove the copy you have, then install the one you want. Read the next bit before you do.
Uninstalling deletes your message history
Your chats are encrypted with a key stored on your phone and nowhere else. Uninstalling removes that key. Without a recovery code your conversations cannot be brought back — not by you, and not by us. We hold no copy we can read.
So do this first, while the app still works:
- 1.Open Aura and go to Settings → Chat backup.
- 2.Turn it on and save the recovery code it gives you.
- 3.Keep it somewhere you won't lose — a password manager, a note, on paper. It can't be reset.
That same code is what unlocks your messages in a browser, so it's worth having either way.
Then swap the app over
- 1.Uninstall Aura the usual way — press and hold the icon, then Uninstall.
- 2.Install the copy you want: Google Play (updates itself from then on) or the direct download.
- 3.Sign in, then go to Settings → Chat backup and enter your recovery code to bring your conversations back.
Your account, gigs, wallet and profile live on your account, not on the phone — they come back on their own when you sign in. Messages are the only thing that needs the code.
The app never offers an update
If you installed Aura from this site rather than Google Play, Play can't update it — it only updates apps it installed itself. That means no update prompt will ever appear, however long you wait.
Two options: check the download page now and then and install the newer build over the top (that works fine — same signature), or move across to Play using the steps above and let it keep itself current.
Play says it isn't available
Aura is rolling out suburb by suburb, starting in Queensland, Australia, so the Play listing isn't open everywhere yet.
You can still use the browser version, or install the direct download — neither is limited the way the store listing is. Matching is hyper-local though, so it works best where there are already neighbours nearby using it.
Your phone warns about installing from the browser
That's expected, and it's Android doing its job. The first time you install anything that didn't come from the Play Store, it asks you to allow it for that app. Approve it and the install continues.
If you'd rather not see that at all, install from Google Play instead.
You reinstalled and your chats are gone
If chat backup was on before you reinstalled, sign in and go to Settings → Chat backup, then enter your recovery code to restore the history.
If it was never turned on, or the code is lost, those messages are unrecoverable. We're not being unhelpful — the design that stops us reading your chats also stops us restoring them. Everything else on your account is unaffected, and new conversations work normally.
Still stuck?
Email us and say what happened. Your phone model, your Android version, and the exact wording on screen are usually enough to spot it straight away. We read every email.