Stremio on iOS: How to Get It on iPhone in 2026

Search for Stremio on your iPhone’s App Store and you will not find it. A search of the US store on October 12, 2026 returns no Stremio app at all, and anything with a similar name that turns up is not Stremio. Yet the full app does exist for iOS: Stremio’s own team builds it, and since February 2026 it has been published as an IPA to install outside the App Store.

So the short answer to “is there Stremio for iOS”: yes, but not from Apple’s store. On iPhone you have three official routes: a limited web version in Safari, the full app through AltStore PAL if you live in Europe, Brazil or Japan, and the full app as an IPA. The IPA is what you install from builds.io in one tap. Below: what each route gives you, how to install the full app, the settings to change first, which add-ons are worth adding, and the problems iPhone users run into most.

Is Stremio on the App Store?

Not right now, and the story explains why the iPhone version feels confusing.

Stremio got a cut-down Stremio Lite into the App Store. It had no torrent streaming. In January 2026 Apple removed it. Apple gave no public reason, and Brazilian outlet Tecnoblog put it down to anti-piracy policy. On February 2, 2026 Stremio announced full-featured IPA builds for iOS, iPadOS and Apple TV. In Stremio’s words they support “all Android features.” The team also said it was still waiting for Apple’s answer on bringing Lite back.

Stremio’s downloads page now lists two iOS options:

• Stremio for iOS (limited version) is the web app at web.stremio.com, added to your Home Screen from Safari.
• Stremio for iOS (full version) is for Europe, Brazil and Japan only, delivered through the AltStore PAL marketplace.

The web version has real limits, and Stremio’s own guide spells them out. The streaming server does not run on iOS, so torrent streams do not work, videos are not converted in the browser, and non-torrent streams open in an external player such as VLC or Outplayer rather than inside Stremio. It is fine for checking your library, and not much of a player.

The full app is different. It has its own player, downloads for offline viewing, subtitle controls and the add-on system the same way it works on Android. Two things are missing from any build installed outside the App Store: Sign in with Apple and Handoff, which Stremio says “cannot be available within sideloadable apps.”

How to install Stremio on iPhone

The build in our catalogue is the official Stremio app for iPhone and iPad, version 2.0.8. It is the same version number Stremio published on September 11, 2026, rebuilt from Stremio’s current 2.x release (the previous build in the catalogue was 1.3.6). Nothing in it is “unlocked”, because Stremio is already free. What you get is the full app without the App Store or a computer.

It is still Stremio, though: it ships with no movies or shows of its own. Streaming needs your own Stremio account, plus add-ons that supply the content. More on both below.

1. Register your iPhone at builds.io. It takes one UDID and happens in the browser.
2. Open the Stremio page and tap GET. It installs like a normal download, with no PC and no developer account of your own.
3. If the first launch says “processing”, that is Apple’s one-time signing queue, not an error. Most devices are ready within a day, and some take up to three days.

You can also download the IPA from Stremio’s site and sign it yourself. That takes a computer and a signing tool, and with a free Apple ID the app expires after seven days and has to be re-signed. Builds from the catalogue stay signed for as long as your subscription runs (why free signing expires).

Stremio 2.0.8 lists iOS 13 as its minimum, and its release notes say the minimum will move up to iOS 15 in a later update.

First setup: account, library, player, subtitles

Account first. Create a free Stremio account, or sign in to the one you already use. Sign in with Apple is not available in this build, so use email. The account is what makes Stremio useful across devices. Add-ons are saved to your account rather than to the phone, and so is your Library. If you already set Stremio up on a PC or an Android TV, it is all there on the iPhone after you log in.

Library and Continue Watching. Anything you add from the Board or Discover lands in Library, and watch progress syncs with it. Since 2.0.8, Continue Watching starts right at the saved position instead of seeking twice.

Settings worth changing on day one:

• Default subtitles language and default audio track. Set them once so you are not fixing them on every episode. Stremio uses your default subtitle language whenever subtitles exist in it.
• Blur unwatched episode images if you don’t want thumbnails spoiling a series.
• Data saver and the low-battery option, if you watch on mobile data.

The player. Version 2.0.x plays video in its own player and added a few things phone users will notice. You get vertical swipes for brightness and volume, visual feedback on double-tap seeking, Picture in Picture, and Live Sync for fixing subtitle timing on the fly. Videos can also be downloaded for offline viewing, with a Live Activity showing progress on iOS 16.2 and later.

Stremio add-ons on iPhone: what they are and how to install them

Stremio on its own is an empty frame. Everything you see in it, from catalogue rows and posters to streams and subtitles, comes from add-ons. Stremio’s developer docs describe an add-on as “a small HTTP service” that runs on someone’s server, not on your phone. It answers Stremio’s requests for one or more of four things: catalogs (the rows on Board and Discover), meta (the details page of a title), streams (the actual video sources) and subtitles.

That is why a fresh install can look broken when it is just unconfigured. With no stream add-on, a title page has nothing to play.

Installing from the catalogue. Open the Add-ons tab, switch between installed and available add-ons, and tap Install. The add-on is added to your account, so it appears on every device you use. To remove one, tap Uninstall in the same place. A few official add-ons are protected and can’t be removed, because the app depends on them.

Installing by link. Add-ons that are not in the catalogue are installed from their manifest link, a URL ending in manifest.json. Most add-on pages have an Install button that opens Stremio directly. If that doesn’t work on the phone, the reliable fallback is the account. Open web.stremio.com on any computer, sign in with the same account and install the add-on there. It shows up on the iPhone the next time Stremio syncs.

The best Stremio add-ons to start with: the official ones

“Best Stremio add-ons” lists are mostly lists of stream add-ons, and the popular community ones pull their streams from torrent networks or paid “debrid” caches. We do not list or link those. Whether a stream is legal depends on what it is and where you live, and we recommend sticking to legal sources.

Stremio publishes its own set of official add-ons on GitHub, and all of them are legitimate:

• Cinemeta. The core catalogue and metadata add-on for movies and series, with posters, descriptions, episodes and the Board rows. It is protected, so it can’t be uninstalled.
• OpenSubtitles v3. Subtitles from OpenSubtitles. It is the add-on Stremio’s help centre points to for subtitles. If OpenSubtitles has nothing for a title, Stremio cannot create subtitles on its own.
• WatchHub. It shows where a movie or show is available to stream across services like Netflix, iTunes, Hulu and Amazon. It is the legal answer to “where can I watch this”, and it is useful even if you never play anything inside Stremio.
• YouTube. You can follow YouTube channels inside Stremio, with a notification when they upload.
• Public Domain Movies. A collection of more than 500 films whose copyright has expired, so they are free to watch.

How to judge any other add-on before you install it:

1. Check what it says it provides. The manifest lists its resources (catalogs, streams, subtitles) and content types. A “catalogue” add-on that also asks to provide streams is doing more than its name says.
2. Ask where the content comes from. A list built from TMDB or Trakt is metadata. A stream add-on has to get video from somewhere, and that “somewhere” decides whether it is legal.
3. Remember it runs on someone else’s server. Stremio never runs add-on code on your device. It sends requests to the add-on’s server, so that server sees what you look up. Prefer open-source add-ons with a public repository and a maintainer you can identify.
4. Be careful with API keys. If an add-on asks for keys or logins to other services, those credentials go to whoever runs it.

Common Stremio problems on iPhone

“No streams” on a title. Stremio’s help centre gives a short answer: streams come from add-ons, so none of your installed add-ons has one for that title. Install more add-ons. Stremio itself suggests the r/StremioAddons community for finding them. Remember that Cinemeta and WatchHub alone do not play anything.

A video won’t play or stutters. Pick a different entry from the stream list first. Each entry is a different file and encoding, and Stremio’s own advice for constant buffering is that the add-on’s source is weak, not the app. The help centre also suggests changing your DNS settings. On older iPhones, high-bitrate 4K files may fall back to software decoding. Since 2.0.7 the app warns you when that happens, and that update also improved high-bitrate playback, so stay on the current build.

“Streaming server is not available.” You will see this in the web version in Safari, and it is expected. The server cannot run on iOS, so torrent streams fail there. The full app does not have this limit.

No subtitles, or the wrong ones. Check that OpenSubtitles v3 is installed and that your default subtitle language is set. Version 2.0.8 fixed automatic subtitle selection and subtitles not refreshing when you switch episodes, so update if you are on an older build. If they are out of sync, use Live Sync in the player.

Add-ons you installed on PC are missing. You are signed in to a different account, or not signed in at all. Add-ons live in the account.

Stremio alternative on iPhone: Nuvio

If Stremio feels like too much setup, Nuvio is the lighter take on the same idea. It is an open-source media hub (GPL-3.0, actively developed on GitHub) that speaks the Stremio add-on format, so the add-ons you already use work in it. It adds Trakt sync for history and ratings, and lets you choose between its built-in player and an external one. Like Stremio, it has no content of its own.

The choice comes down to what you want. Pick Stremio if you want one library on every screen you own. Pick Nuvio if you want one clean app on the phone. The side-by-side comparison is in Stremio and Nuvio on iPhone.

FAQ

Is Stremio available on the App Store? No. Stremio Lite was removed in January 2026 and had not returned as of October 2026. The full app is distributed as an IPA, and through AltStore PAL in Europe, Brazil and Japan.

Is the IPA the real Stremio? Yes. Stremio publishes the IPA builds itself. The one in our catalogue is the official app, version 2.0.8, installed without a computer.

Does Stremio work on iPad? Yes. Stremio’s IPA builds cover iOS and iPadOS, and the catalogue build installs on both.

Is Stremio legal? The app is: it is a player and organiser with no content of its own. What you watch through it depends on your add-ons. The official ones above are legitimate, and for anything else the legality depends on the source and your country.

What to install next

Stremio is the organiser that holds everything together. If your video comes from an IPTV playlist rather than add-ons, a dedicated player does that job better: see the best IPTV players for iPhone. For the wider shelf of media apps, sorted by where your video comes from, see the best streaming apps for iPhone. Get Stremio on builds.io and it installs in one tap.