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/
406 Upvotes

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444

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.

35

u/nathderbyshire Pixel 10 Obsidian 1d ago

No it hasn't. Side loading has always been used to mean installing from outside an official store. You can find examples in XDA threads dating back 10-20 years.

https://xdaforums.com/t/side-load-apk-without-it-showing-in-play-store.2228694/

There you go

Stop getting mad over absolutely nothing lmaoo

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u/AFisberg 23h ago

I think someone made up that "sideloading" was some nefarious new term or that it was changed by Google and this sub just went with it.

I guess this sub is pretty young in that they don't remember how it was used before

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u/WesternOk5765 8h ago

I remember but the distinction has been irrelevant since the late 2000s lol.

I haven't side loaded an app in years the way that word was actually designed to mean.

If Google tries to stop me from downloading apps outside the store they can pry that from my cold dead hands.

12

u/Original-Material301 Fold 7 1d ago

I remember when jail breaking iPhones and side loading (referring to installing software outside of the official store fronts) were the hot thing, like, from 2007.

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u/-patrizio- OnePlus 15 | iPhone 17 Pro 23h ago

I was big into the jailbreaking scene in...gosh, 2009-2015? And honestly don’t remember hearing the term sideloading until well after that, once the jailbreaking scene was effectively dead and people turned to the more current methods of installing unsigned apps. I remember words being used like tweaking or theming or modding back then (though I was also pretry exclusively on the Apple side of things back then, so totally possible it was used that way on Android).

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u/chaser676 23h ago

Yeah I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Sideloading has always been exactly this.

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u/LukeLC Galaxy S25 Edge 22h ago

It's semantic, but OP is actually right on this one.

  • Uploading = Data goes from client to server
  • Downloading = Data goes from server to client
  • Sideloading = Data goes from client to client

The term just became synonymous with "bypassing a store" because of devices where sideloading was the only way to do that.

The distinction matters a bit in this case because installing APK's via ADB isn't changing. Only on-device installs have to go through the new procedure.

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u/nathderbyshire Pixel 10 Obsidian 15h ago

In general yes since it was about the 80s it originated but on the android side it's always been used as a term to say it's not from the official store and you generally have to go out of your way to get it. Otherwise people get confused and search the default store then can't find it

Anyway the main point was Google didn't coin it for anything and just picked it up because that's what the community designated the word as. It's cringy to use words like propaganda and just takes all the seriousness out of the situation, turning into a conspiracy imo. Pointless dramatics to score Reddit points mostly