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Discussion Thread: 🐌 Saturday 30 August 2025 (aussie.zone)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/melbourne@aussie.zone
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[–] 11 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I've been an enthusiastic Android user for nearly 15 years now, this Google change is pretty scary.

Installing apps through FDroid is no more "sideloading" than installing a game through Steam.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    What happened? They're cracking down on non play store apk's?

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    My understanding is that the author of an APK will now need to be verified through some Google service, in order to be able to sign the file and be accepted by an Android device regardless of if it came through the Play (or alt) styles, or sideloaded directly by a user.

    So it’s not quite as locked down as iOS, but definitely a step in that direction (and in the wrong direction, IMO).

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    Wow that’s pretty extreme for android honestly.

    I think they’re trying to make the play store genuine competition to the iOS ecosystem. It’s laughably easy to pirate APK’s which I would imagine would turn off a lot of developers, especially smaller ones that might just be one or two people.

    That said, I’m sideloading on iOS latest firmware but it’s not as easy as googling the name of the app and putting IPA in the search thread.

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