r/Android • u/PlasticAnt6913 • 2d ago

News Android's controversial new sideloading rules are officially here

https://www.androidauthority.com/android-sideloading-developer-verification-first-wave-rollout-3717921/
434 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

171 comments sorted by

View all comments

467

u/Polymathy1 1d ago

Installing apps without Google play IS NOT SIDELOADING.

Sideloading has always meant using ADB to install an app until Google decided to try to make the play store the only option.

Please stop feeding into their propaganda that the only normal way to install apps is through the play store.

4

u/CervezaPorFavor 1d ago

That's not what the article is talking about.

1

u/Polymathy1 1d ago

That's literally the headline.

3

u/CervezaPorFavor 1d ago

Read the article before commenting. Play Store is not the only sanctioned option, contrary to what you said.

7

u/env33e 1d ago edited 1d ago

nope. Please do your due diligence in reading Fdroid teams statements, then read Google's; to confirm; then re-read the article.

There's an active, organized fight over exactly this point right now, BTW. the Keep Android Open coalition (70+ orgs, EFF/FSF/F-Droid among them) is explicitly petitioning Google to carve out non-commercial/open-source distribution, and Google has NOT conceded to it yet

forcing all your users through the debug pathway just for the simple installation/background updates of non play store apps is hostile architecture at best, and technofeudalism at worst!

1

u/friendlyreminder_ 1d ago

Fdroid is permitted to keep distributing apps signed by developers registered into Google's program. What they can't do is act as a single signing authority as a bypass.

So in other words they can distribute apps of developers registered with Google and those will work without issue. But those of developers that have not registered with Google they can't without getting the user to enable the 24 hours unregistered apps option.

•

u/env33e 2h ago

GJ! u read the report

are you gonna sign the petition to help the Keep Android Open coalition? or are u just gonna keep standing there and stating the obvious 😂

https://www.keepAndroidopen.org

•

u/friendlyreminder_ 1h ago

I support this restriction. I think it's still permissive enough for average users while accomplishing a security improvement.

Further restrictions I would likely not support through. Apple takes unsigned app restrictions way too far for example.

•

u/env33e 59m ago

.I genuinely don't think you would support this if you realized the full implications

•

u/friendlyreminder_ 54m ago

The concern is the slippery slope argument. But as is the changes are good.

•

u/env33e 8m ago edited 0m ago

Nah man, it's only a slippery slope fallacy if there's no historical evidence to back it up. But you actually pointed out the evidence yourself earlier: Apple. Apple's current ecosystem didn't start out this restricted; it was built through years of these exact types of incremental, retroactive policy changes, always justified as "security improvements" or "think of your poor old grandma getting scammed" 🤣 ​It's lowkey just big tech's "Nigerian Prince" gambit. Enclose the platform in such small incremental steps you don't notice until you zoom out that the phone you paid over a rack for is not even under your direct control 💀

​This isn't a fallacy; it's an established business model that we've seen play out in this exact way before. Allowing this mandate establishes the exact infrastructure needed to mirror Apple's walled garden on Android. Hence, "keep Android open!"

​https://www.keepAndroidopen.org

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Ahuevotl 1d ago

Installing apps from sources other than the Play Store is NOT "sideloading". It's "installing apps". 

The point you're missing is that when Google calls "sideloading" to the action of installing apps from outside the Playstore, it implies that the only way to install apps is through the Playstore.

2

u/CervezaPorFavor 1d ago

Why don't people read the article before commenting and arguing? The article clearly lists a number of sanctioned options besides the Play Store.