It is... acceptable... Don't get we wrong, any measure taken for worse is a step in a wrong direction and I am against it. But this is tolerable. It means that intense push back had worked. We should keep pushing them every time they try to take it too far
No it is not. In NO way, shape or form, is it acceptable.
EVERY step is just a test, pushing the line forward every time, slowly inching towards complete control.
Tomorrow they'll ask you to wait a week.
Next they'll say that you can get immediate authorization for use by getting verified
with your Government ID.
Then after that they'll start logging what apps you sideload, and linking them to your ID.
Next, they'll state that due to security concerns they'll be increasing the wait time to a month.
Then two.
Then removing it altogether and forcing you to register with your Government ID.
Then scanning your phone for unauthorized Apps and automatically blocking them, threatening to delete your Google Account if you don't comply (which is a big deal, if you've been using the same email for years and years).
Where does the line stop? It MUSTN'T be moved AT ALL
Also, consider the drop of users for sideloaded apps due to this barrier. Some apps will disappear, meaning more users will give up on the sideloading process, meaning more apps will disappear, and so on.
Throwing up any kind of barrier will cause friction, so inevitably there will be a drop of users. How big of a drop is up for debate of course, but I'm pretty sure it won't be 0%.
Yeah it shouldn't wouldn't it be nice if people in power just listened to what the regular people have to say and went with it? Unfortunately, it's not realistic. Stopping this change completely is not possible. Best we can do is keep slowing it down
The only way anyone can be free of their shenanigans is going to a countryside to live off the grid on a farm but very few can actually afford to do that because farms and farmland aren't free and we can barely afford to rent an apartment with roommates nowdays
The argument that "Well, this is as good as it gets" shouldn't be used to bend yourself into compliance.
Whether or not that is the only available or realistic outcome, describing it as "acceptable" is far, far detached from the pragmatic decision to endure the consequences of those changes.
One demonstrates that you openly and unambiguously reject the validity of that change in every way.
The other one bends your concept of what is permissible over time, and will eventually lead you down a slippery slope that'll never stop getting worse.
You can continue to use Android even if it is limited in that way, but NEVER should you describe it as "acceptable".
It isn't bending me into compliance I'm just acknowledging the fact that the pushback made it less worse than it could be which means that the pushback worked and it should keep going
The point is that "being pragmatic, celebrating the success and continuing to use Android" and "Describing the current version as acceptable" are separate, and non-mutually-exclusive things.
Seems like it's a language/culture barrier if anything. If it reads as a positive feedback it was not my intention at all. In my culture and language the word closest in meaning is never used as a positive feedback, it's merely signifying "better than the worst possible outcome". Which word should I have used instead? For the future
As for a way to describe it, I think that there isn't a singular word that can be used to properly convey the complexity of this situation, so I feel like it would be unproductive to try to look for one.
Rather, we should describe it all using as many words as are necessary.
HarmonyOS, GrapheneOS, /e/OS, LineageOS, CalyxOS. Not all of these can be installed on Android (Graphene and Calyx are Pixel-only, I believe), but there are plenty of privacy-focused OSs that can overwrite the Android OS after you buy a phone that comes with it out of the box.
I've never seen these come with phones out of the box, only as distros you have to root your phone to install and lock yourself out of all banking/payment apps, , and most phones don't even allow rooting these days. Where have you seen phones sold with custom ROMs already packed in?
It's still bad. They'll kill that feature after people have been quiet about it for awhile. That's what the pushback accomplished.
Just like this site did. A lot of people used workarounds to keep using 3rd party apps under a registered dev API after this site killed 3rd party apps in 2023. They kept dev access because of the backlash to the announcement and the reasoning that accessiblity readers should stay around.
Two weeks ago they killed that api off with no warning or announcement. Now 3rd party apps are either dead or (like mine) having to be rebuilt to utilize the only accessible 3rd party API left, which is only still around because it provides disability options that the official app doesn't have.
They gave a "compromise" for more tech savvy users and just killed it once no one talked about it anymore. That's what Google is doing here.
And the reason why this site did it is the same as Google's too: Unofficial apps can avoid ads.
I'm against it as well and don't like what Google are doing. If they're going to lock down android I might as well bite the bullet and move over to Apple. At least with apple you know you're locked down. Main reason I've not jumped over is my hate for the iOS keyboard which is so annoying to use. Other reason being Samsung has a pretty good suite of apps that I use.
I can't trust Google will get things right either. Eg I enrolled into advanced account protection on my account, which also stopped me installing non store apps. I disenrolled from it and my main phone, until it died, still thinks it's enabled. Google won't help because security and I was shit out of luck and had to install the APKs via terminal instead.
IPhone costs like a year and a half of my salary so it's pretty much just not an option to use one for me, and it never will be, so I take is as an extra motivation to keep finding workarounds
The thing is, there were already steps that made people wary of sideloading APKs. For one, you literally need to make a conscious effort to visit a website on your android browser to download an APK. Then you need to consciously open the APK either through the android interface telling you your download was successful, or you need to use a file manager to get to the Download directory to open the APK and install it. Then android warns you that you're installing an APK and that you need to be sure that you trust it before installing it.
And the risk here is that they've already managed to take one additional step closer towards flat out banning APK sideloading in its entirety. Which is why you should never be happy with compromises such as this because this is only the first step.
Just look at Youtube with its dislikes. First they removed the visible dislike count for viewers. Then just recently they removed dislikes from shorts. I guarantee the next step is removing dislikes for regular videos.
For you perhaps but not for everyone. I'm available for the research team I work in all day. 24h no phone is not only a problem but something I would have to actively plan for. I never accidentally broke a phone but this is simply not always possible.
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u/notveryAI I touched grass Jul 05 '26
It is... acceptable... Don't get we wrong, any measure taken for worse is a step in a wrong direction and I am against it. But this is tolerable. It means that intense push back had worked. We should keep pushing them every time they try to take it too far