Install Snap Store on Raspberry Pi for Easy App Management

I’m not a big fan of Snaps on a regular Linux desktop, but I’ll admit they can make life easier. Raspberry Pi OS is fairly minimal, and installing software outside the default repositories can quickly become annoying. In this guide, I’ll show you how to install the Snap Store, then use it to find and manage apps more easily.

On Raspberry Pi, installing and using the Snap Store instead of the default “Add/Remove Software” tool is possible for a better user experience. Snap is available in the default repository, and Snap Store can then be installed as a snap.

Don’t worry if you are new to this, I’ll explain everything in this article, starting with a brief introduction about Snap and the Snap Store before moving to the installation steps.

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Snap and the Snap Store Explained

We are not necessarily used to Snap packages on Raspberry Pi OS, but they are now the default way to install new applications on many distributions.

Snap packages bundle an application with everything it needs to run.

It means that you don’t have to deal with missing dependencies or as many compatibility issues as you sometimes get with APT. Apps are also isolated from the rest of the system for better security and updated automatically, so you get the latest features and security fixes without managing them yourself.

The Snap Store is simply an interface for the popular Snap package manager. You can think of it like the “Recommended Software” application on Raspberry Pi OS but with more choices. Best of all, it works the same way on all Linux distributions.

So, let’s see how to install the Snap Store on your Raspberry Pi.

Installing Snap Store on Raspberry Pi

Before we start the installation process, I wanted to let you know that you don’t need anything specific to follow along with me. All you need is a Raspberry Pi (I would suggest Pi 4 or newer) running the latest version of Raspberry Pi OS.

Once you have access to your Pi (either through a monitor or SSH access), we’re ready to start!

Step 1: Install the Snap Daemon Tool

To start, we need the Snap package utility, which gives us the ability to access snaps.
Here’s how to install it:

• Open a new terminal window on your Raspberry Pi.
• Refresh your package list to get the newest ones available:
  sudo apt update
• Install the Snap daemon service:
  sudo apt install snapd
  

• Restart your system:
  sudo reboot

Great! You should now have Snap installed on your system.

Tip: Command lines can be a pain to memorize. I put the essential Linux commands on a printable cheat sheet so you don't have to keep googling them. You can grab the PDF here if you want to save some time.

Step 2: How to Install Snap Packages

Once this is complete, you now have the power to run containerized applications using Snap!
Installing a program is as easy as typing: snap install <app>

The truth is, the default repo installed an older version of the Snap tool on our system.
But we want the latest version.

Let’s use Snap itself to get the latest version of the tool:
sudo snap install snapd

You should now have the newest version of Snap on your Raspberry Pi.

You can install any other application available with Snap using this same syntax.
Here’s an example:
sudo snap install hello-world

After installing this program, you can test it by running ‘hello-world’ in your terminal.

Perfect, now you understand how Snap works.

But wouldn’t it be easier if you could use Snap with a graphical interface, so you can see what apps are available? It sure is, and I’ll show you how to do that next.

Step 3: Install the Snap Store

The Snap Store is a popular application that will let us manage Snap packages visually.
It makes it easer to browse with your mouse and find new apps to install on your desktop.

Here’s how to install the Snap Store:sudo snap install snap-store

It will take some time to download and configure everything, so just be patient.
Once everything is done, you should see the following message.

Using the Snap Store

Great, now you have the Snap Store on your Raspberry Pi. In this section, I will walk you through some steps to help you learn how to use this software to make your life easier!

If you’re on Raspberry Pi OS (and other Linux desktops), you should be able to launch the Snap Store from your main menu.

If you can’t find it, you can also launch the Snap Store from the terminal: snap-store

Navigating the Store Interface

This will open the Snap Store for you in a new window. The interface is quite minimalistic and easy to use in my opinion. You will be greeted with a home screen displaying different application categories as shown below.

Here’s a breakdown of the different sections:

• The Search bar at the top lets you find any application by name.
  This will be useful as the store has thousands of packages.
• Under Explore, you can browse freely to discover new Snaps.
• Under Featured, you can see which popular Snaps are highlighted for the day.
  
  
• The remaining tabs, such as Productivity, Development, and Games lets you find more apps in those specific categories.
  
  
• Manage is at the very bottom. Here, you can see Snaps that are already installed on your system. So now, you have an interface that lets you track all the Snaps you’ve installed on your system and update or uninstall them all in one place.
  
  

That was all for a tour of the user interface.
Now for the main part, let’s install our very first application using the Snap Store.

Installing Your First Snap from the Snap Store

I enjoy software development, so I want to install a code development environment on my Pi like VS Code. Find the use case for your Pi and choose an application accordingly (a simple Google search is all you need to find it).

Unfortunately, VS Code is not readily available for the Pi through the Snap Store. However, there is an application called Codium, an open-source, non-licensed version of VS Code that is available on the store. So, I will be installing that.

• Type “codium” or whichever app you would like into the search bar. Once you find the application, click on it to open a new window which shows its Snap details.
  
  
• Click the Install button (it’s hard to miss!).
  You might be asked for your password to approve the installation.
  Wait a few minutes for the application installation to complete.
  
• Once it’s all done, you be able to launch the program from your main menu:
  
  
• This will open the development code editor codium for me!
  If you’re in the IT or software industry, this screen below will be very familiar to you.
  
  

Congratulations! We have successfully installed our very first Snap from the Snap Store.

In this article, we learnt about Snap and Snap Store, and how to install and use it on the Raspberry Pi. As discussed throughout this article, it’s a feature-rich, interactive GUI for the popular Snap package manager.

However, if you are like me and you still love terminals and prefer using them, you can stick to the APT package manager which comes by default with Raspberry Pi OS. Here is an article which would be helpful for you: What is APT?

On the other hand, if you are still confused between Snap and APT, here is an article to make things easier for you: What’s the Difference Between Snap and APT on Linux?

Alternately, if you’re looking for a more open-source way of doing things, like Snap but for desktop applications only, check out Flatpak.

That is all for this article! Thank you for reading it till the end.

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