Fortnite's position on Android has seen more flip-flops than a beach resort. Following moves from Epic Games the Fortnite app was booted out of Google Play, meaning that if you want the game - or updates to the game - you'll have to install it outside of Google Play. 

Which is the situation as it stands, where Epic now only offers Fortnite via its own Epic Games launcher app. Fortunately, it's easy to install the battle royale title and safe to do so. 

Here, then, is how to install it onto your Android device.

Fortnite for Android minimum spec

While Fortnite isn't the single most graphically intensive phone game out there, it's still pretty heavy duty, so there are some minimum specs that your phone will need to play it. If your phone matches or exceeds these, it should still be able to run Fortnite:

  • OS: Recommended Android 8.0 or higher, 64 bit
  • RAM: 4GB or higher
  • GPU: Adreno 530 or higher, Mali-G71 MP20, Mali-G72 MP12 or higher

How to install the Fortnite app

As Fortnite is no longer available through Google Play, if you want the app, you'll have to get it from Epic directly. That's an easy process - and you don't have to use any third-party app services, you're getting it right from the source. First you have to install the Epic Games app which will in turn let you download Fortnite.

fortnite android photo 3
Pocket-lint

Here's the process:

  1. Open your phone's browser and head to fortnite.com.
  2. On the right-hand side you'll see a 'Download' tab
  3. Tap 'Download' and select 'Get it on the Epic Games app'
  4. Your browser will ask if you want to download the APK for Epic Games app, confirm that you do.
  5. Next you'll likely get a scary alert saying that your browser (i.e., Chrome) won't allow installation of unknown apps  and prompt you to grant permission.
  6. Give Chrome/your browser permission - you can just tap the notification to make the change.
  7. You can then install the APK you downloaded to install the Epic Games app.

If you have a Samsung phone, it's a much simpler process. You can download the Epic Games app direct from the Galaxy Store that's pre-installed on your phone. 

fortnite android photo 4
Pocket-lint

Once you have the Epic Games app, you can open up the app to locate Fortnite. It will probably be the first thing that you're shown.

  1. Open the Epic Games app, tap on Fortnite.
  2. You'll download the app again, this time you'll have to grant Epic Games permission to download this type of app, as you did with Chrome.
  3. Once its downloaded, you can install the app. 
  4. Once you open the app - and grant more permissions - you can sign into your Epic Games account.

That's it - it's a bit of a long process compared to installing from Google Play, but that's 2020 for you. What you can do, once you've installed the Epic Games app, is go back into the premissions for Chrome (or your browser) and switch off the option to download apps from unknown sources again, just to keep things safe in the future.