Remember that brief period in the US where, for a fleeting moment, Lina Khan went after a few companies for monopolistic practices?
Google will block sideloading of unverified Android apps starting next year
Submitted 2 months ago by themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
xodoh74984@lemmy.world 2 months ago
popekingjoe@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Yeah man, those were the days.
Ulrich@feddit.org 2 months ago
Brother let me tell you about my friend Janet Reno, who fucked with Microsoft in 2001…
Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Meanwhile back at the ranch
Malware-ridden apps made it into Google’s Play Store, scored 19 million downloads
generator@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
Right, only install “verified” from Google Play, but that is where malware is, other 3rd party app stores like F-Droid, that really verify apps are at risk of getting killed by Google
Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
This is very obviously step one in a plan to kill apps like alternative YouTube clients that block ads, just like the Manifest V3 rollout was intended to kill ad blockers in Chrome. Once they have everyone using this verification system, then they can just arbitrarily deverify anything that contravenes whatever new acceptable usage policy they just made up.
ItsComplicated@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Google can’t keep malware off the platform now, but sure, make it mandatory you can’t go anywhere else unless they say so first.
DmMacniel@feddit.org 2 months ago
How about letting the users decide what to sideload? What the hell?
I hope the EU is ready to also sue Google.
cabbage@piefed.social 2 months ago
The EU already forced sideloading to be officially supported on iPhones thanks to the Digital Markets Act, and that law applies to Google as well.
The US will likely apply pressure, just like they are trying to force their death machines to be legalized on European roads. Apple already tried to pressure the union and failed, but the political climate has changed a bit since then, and while EU bureaucrats can be fierce, European leadership tends to be weak as fuck.
But yeah, chances are that this change won't apply to the EU. :)
DmMacniel@feddit.org 2 months ago
European leadership tends to be weak as fuck.
which is utterly disheartening.
paraphrand@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Does the law demand unsigned software?
Ulrich@feddit.org 2 months ago
It’s too bad they were too terrible at writing legislation to be successful.
azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
The EU is currently deepthroating Trump so hard that it’s completely out of breath and all our clothes are ruined.
With how volatile Trump is this could change literally anyday, but with the current political equilibrium all google would have to do is gift trump a shiny golden thing so he makes a threatening remark about gas exports and the EU would go “uwu yes master right away master, do you want to fuck my gaping asshole while you’re at it?”.
themurphy@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
It will probably be for the rest of the world.
EU devices not effected.
Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Google says it’s no different than checking IDs at the airport.
Fucker, if I own the airport, own the planes in the airport, am the only person using my own planes in my own airport, then nobody is asking for my ID.
Our phone, our software choice.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Fucker, if I own the airport, own the planes in the airport, am the only person using my own planes in my own airport, then nobody is asking for my ID.
Okay, but what if Google owns the airport, the planes, and thinks its entitled to own the people flying on them, to boot?
ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 2 months ago
But what if you owned nothing and were happy about it?
Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
The minimalist in me would love that. But while I am paying for this shit, it’s mine to do what the hell I damn well please with it!
CrowAirbrush@lemmy.world 2 months ago
There it is, haha.
Gave me a good chuckle as i’m with you here.
I have a similar sentiment when it comes to ads, my device, i pay for the internet and the device is inside my home. I’ll decide if you get to show me ads.
Fiery@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
For ads at least the argument can be made that the content you consume is not yours and as such you should not be allowed to choose how it is monetized.
Google unilaterally deciding this is like Firefox or chrome adding ads to websites. Which is like no… They’re the medium through which content is consumed.
sturmblast@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Read the contracts you sign when you buy your phone and you’ll understand how wrong you are. The problem here is we have very little choices. Monopolies kill consumer choice.
veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
99% of those contracts are not enforceable. And I bought my phone used. No paper, no contract.
Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Read the contracts you sign when you buy your phone
Contracts? Unless I’m buying a subsidized phone where a mobile phone plan is required, I’m not sure what other contract I’d be signing. I never got one from Samsung, OnePlus, Google, any used marketplace, or Amazon.
They get paid, and I get hardware to do what I like with it. If I can’t do what I want with it, then I’m renting, and I should be paying a rental fee, not a “full price”.
BCsven@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
I didn’t sign a contract. Also just flashed the Pixel to GrapheneOS, and bye bye google
sk1nnym1ke@piefed.social 2 months ago
I don't like how tech is evolving...
mushroommunk@lemmy.today 2 months ago
Devolving*
pennomi@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It’s evolving, just towards authoritarianism.
Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 2 months ago
It was always intended to be this way.
The beginning was pre-enshittification. We're going from the good ole' days to the future, and the future sure as shit aint for you unless you're in the club... and you aint, none of us are.
bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
We need to make our own club, with blackjack and hookers!
Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 2 months ago
There’s already a firm divide between the foss/self sufficiency crowd and modern tech.
If this is bad enough, you’d see every foss faithful walking around with a laptop, mp3 player and camera like they’re in 2009.
3laws@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Every day that passes I use my T480 more and more, it will die with me
Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
I hardly believe foss faithful people would ever carry a laptop, but there is a chance they will choose a foss-respecting phone (not that there are many options)
zarathustra0@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I don’t like how tech is evolving…
Yeah, I’m not sure I like what’s happening with this axe in my hand. It seems to be going for the internet fiber.
Konstant@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Wasn’t Apple sued for not allowing sideloading?
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 2 months ago
You can sideload but the developer has to be authorized by Google. I.e. you can still install apps from f-droid but people publishing apps on f-droid will have to register with Google.
kolorafa@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I dont have an issue with a festure to allow my phone to automatically veirfy signatures. But there should be a way to import/configure more signature verification providers including my own authority and even then it should still allow imstall if user really want and trust it.
amju_wolf@pawb.social 1 month ago
This might be an issue because f-droid re-signs apps with their own keys…
I mean depends on enforcement I guess.
Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 2 months ago
The moment I don't get to run my own stuff and F-Droid, I'll be switching off smartphones.
sexy_peach@feddit.org 2 months ago
I’ll use the ugliest command line only smartphone over fully walled garden android
mesamunefire@piefed.social 2 months ago
Real talk, are there ones like that?
Ive seen things like https://www.tindie.com/products/zitaotech/hackberrypi5-with-9900-keyboard/ and I REALLY want one....but they are always sold out.
Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 2 months ago
Dumbphone with tethering
A mini laptop/cyberdeck
A modern mp3 player
A small, modern point and click camera
hey gramps, where’d you get that gear, 2007?
flips shades
“nah, sonny. 1988”
continues walking with a lean
LiveLM@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
Damn I’m gonna need cargo pants to carry all this
Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 2 months ago
It's not a cyberdeck unless I have trodes and a halo, chummer. But some kind of netbook would be great.
themadcodger@kbin.earth 2 months ago
I'll probably go with one of the other roms on an older phone or possibly one of the Linux phones. It won't be exactly what I want, but it'll be better than their walled garden bullshit. That's precisely why I left Apple way back when.
Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 2 months ago
Or we just… ignore them?
LineageOS and GrapheneOS could just be like “well, go on, then.”
There’s a market for everything and the FOSS and maker markets would eat up an open Android phone, even if the only apps you could install were community-created.
tomenzgg@midwest.social 2 months ago
I’m probably going to spam this around a bit, since most people don’t seem to know about it, but a reminder that FuriLabs has a (GNU+)Linux phone with decent spec.s and the ability to run Android app.s (from what I’ve heard) pretty decently: furilabs.com
Biggest drawback is it’s based on Halium. Usual growing pains of a new product/company apply but apparently the company is pretty responsive and their dev.s have worked with customers to get things like calling working with the carrier and bands of their country where it hasn’t worked before so improvements move pretty quickly.
Collection of different experiences I’ve variously seen online over the last year or so:
- clehaxze.tw/…/07-20-flx1-actually-usable-linux-ph…
- news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41839326
- www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/…/furilabs_flx1/
- www.reddit.com/r/…/flx1_linux_phone_display_out/
- www.theregister.com/2025/02/03/furiphone_flx1/
I don’t own one, myself, so I can’t give any personal experience but I’ve seen it around for a few years now but most people don’t seem to even know about it. Maybe there’s a reason for that? But none I’ve ever seen anyone say.
GorGor@startrek.website 2 months ago
HOLY SHIT IS THAT A HEADPHONE JACK?!
Seriously this ticks boxes Ive given up on. I never thought Id see a phone with all three: waterproof, removable battery, headphone jack. It even has wireless charging which isnt really one of my boxes but is a little extra if you use it.
ArchEngel@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Wow, thanks for this comment, I think I may have finally found my next phone! I did not expect Linux with android, wireless charging, NFC, and hopefully one day display out. Thanks for commenting!
Spaniard@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Looks good but it’s too bulky.
tomenzgg@midwest.social 2 months ago
Yeah; that’s totally fair. Mostly, I just want to get it more known; whenever Mobile Linux come up, people namedrop Purism, the Pinephone, maybe UBPorts and the general conclusion is that the spec.s, alone, of what’s available are pretty much a non-starter.
There’s definitely aspects of this phone that some people wouldn’t go for but I’d rather sales be limited by not-the-right-choice than just no one knew it existed; especially when any progress can get sent upstream and improve future projects, as well.
roofuskit@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Oof, time to bite the bullet and switch email providers. Shit like this is why I’ve spent the last couple years de-googling my life.
themadcodger@kbin.earth 2 months ago
Do it! It's not that bad. Everyone's got different needs, but I switched to fastmail and have been enjoying it.
Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
If you’re making the switch anyway, get yourself a domain name from a separate company to run it through. That way in the future you can keep using your domain even if you switch mail/web-hosting providers.
cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
so basically i have to send in my id to google just to sideload a test apk i made in flutter to my own phone to test it out?
floofloof@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Ad it’s just another data point for corporations and governments to be able to tie all your tech activities to your real identity. Great for surveillance!
WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
and if it will work like the play store, you will need to upload an apk* and download the signed version, so it’s bot even immediately obvious if they changed anything.
* not really an apk but an intermediate build product
Mjpasta710@midwest.social 2 months ago
Just like apple. 😔
MSids@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The Android ecosystem has been feeling more like an invasive chaotic advertisement machine the past few years. The play store is a cesspool, the weather app switch was poorly executed, Google Podcasts went to the graveyard, and Google pay getting shut down meant I had to switch because to vomits Venmo.
I still have Android gaming handhelds, but why wouldn’t I just get an iPhone the next time I go to replace my phone? I can’t believe I’m even saying that after being so die hard Android so for years.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 months ago
why wouldn’t I just get an iPhone
Jumping from the frying pan straight into the fire.
brendansimms@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Exactly this. Just left iOS and got a pixel8a and flashed grapheneos on it. Apple is doing the same shit. GOS might be a pain in the ass sometimes but I feel much better knowing that Tim Apple isn’t reading my texts and monitoring my bank apps so they can target me with ads.
MSids@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’m sure we all have a different perception, but my current view is that Google sells you a phone that they need to push ads and harvest vast amounts of data from you in order to make money on the phone, and Apple somehow needs to do this less.
Which company do you feel takes privacy more seriously? From what I understand, Google primarily makes their money from advertising.
DupaCycki@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Two things especially worth noting from the article.
If you have a non-Google build of Android on your phone, none of this applies.
This means that at least GrapheneOS will be unaffected for now. Other ROMs without gapps will be unaffected only as long as you don’t install gapps. Since Graphene has a sandbox for them, I’m assuming it’ll be fine. That is, unless Google decides to lock the bootloader entirely.
In September 2026, Google plans to launch this feature in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. The next step is still hazy, but Google is targeting 2027 to expand the verification requirements globally.
So most users worldwide still have at least 1.5 years until it’s implemented. Plenty of time to get a Pixel and install Graphene on it. Or to figure out some other plan.
Don’t get me wrong - this is insane, unreasonable and horrible news for everyone. We should push back as hard as physically possible against it. However, at the very least we still have some time to figure things out before the policy rolls out.
raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I honestly wish for the responsible people to die. A natural, painless death, but let it be quick. All of silicon valley is so evil it would be deemed unrealistic for a movie villain. They are selling out our freedoms and planet for what? They are already stinking rich.
woland@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Great. This could be just the boost that free android needs. Graphene and eos can brace for a few new customers i guess
MisterD@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
FYI: Apple got sued for blocking other app stores. This would prevent f-droid from being installable
simsalabim@lemmy.world 2 months ago
EU: How often do I have to teach you, old man?
AniZaeger@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Last I checked, unverified software didn’t run the risk of making my phone fly itself into, and bring down, a skyscraper.
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 2 months ago
Did some research and here are your options:
- use custom mod (the new restriction only applies to certified devices). You can use microG (/e/, iode, Lineage) or sandboxing (GrapheneOS) to run apps requiring Google services. Google will still try to kill it but my bet is it will still work for at least a couple of years
- Ubuntu Touch - you can buy new devices with it, it can run android apps using waydroid but you will not be able to run any apps requiring google services. It can run native Linux apps. Native UT apps are build using QML. It has a completely new system API so it’s closer to Android then native Linux. It’s based on Halium which uses the kernel from Android
- PostmarketOS - native Linux running native Linux apps. Can use waydroid. Few supported devices but everything works on PinePhone Pro and few others phones.
- Droidian or similiar - Debian running on Halium. Kind of half way between PostmarketOS and Ubunut Touch. Native Linux but running on Android based kernel
Personally, I will stick with GrapheneOS for now (my Pixel still has at least 6 years of support). When I’m unable to run all the apps I need on it I will switch to two phones setup: stock Android for work/car apps, some Linux phone for everything else. When my Pixel dies I will switch to iPhone.
N0t_5ure@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Sure glad I de-googled with GrapheneOS that ironically runs on Pixel phones.
grandma@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
If you use the term “sideloading” you already lost the battle before you finished your sentence
nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Modern business strategy be like “If you’re not building an illegal monopoly, consider doing so for more money”
mlg@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I will pay hard cash money for some devs to bring postmarketos to quality hardware vendors.
I’m all for buying a pinephone, but man are we missing out on the full potential from some genuinely good OEM hardware stuff like razr flip.
Aside from google doing google things, android has been a bloated java pos toy OS for nearly a decade now. It completely wastes the full potential of superior hardware by running everything on a shitty JVM known as the ART that was designed for when devices had <512mb of RAM. A Nintendo 3DS can do better multi process tasking than modern android which regularly kills app threads for no reason other than to screw with you because you dared to switch to a different app for 5 seconds.
Android was supposed to be the big apple killer because of its closeness to a desktop OS with heavy emphasis on widespread features and functionality. Even technically speaking, rooting got you there if you wanted to run whatever straight on the linux environment or swap kernels.
Its nothing but a ripoff iOS clone now. Android 7/8 was probably the peak of development and usability, and even back then people were complaining it didn’t have groundbreaking improvements like 6 or lollipop.
RiQuY@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
Is that even legal? Monopolistic behaviour.
Jhex@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Fuck Google
yermaw@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Isn’t this like 90% of the reason people prefer android over apple?
RacerX@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
I kinda miss my BlackBerry.
sturmblast@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I guess it’s time to buy a linux phone
bubblybubbles@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
“
Don’tBe Evil”Deflated0ne@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Well. They will try anyway.
TommySoda@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Google getting rid of all the things that made people want an android phone over an iPhone.
themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Yep, if this happens there is no benefit to android.
NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
I mean, there is still UI/UX, app store policies, and general cost/options.
This definitely makes Android a lot less appealing. But it is also questionable to act like the biggest reason to use android was sideloading apps since the vast majority of users don’t even know that is an option (and probably shouldn’t since they have no understanding of how to vet them).
Chozo@fedia.io 2 months ago
It's still a step up from iOS, which has had similar restrictions since they started.
Bogasse@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Linux phones are moving fast but it feels like Android is moving faster on the other direction 😥
(Yes I know Android is built over Linux, I mean more traditional and open distros like postmarketos)
favoredponcho@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
Are they moving fast? It’s been like 18 years since the iPhone came out and there really isn’t a viable Linux phone.
Ulrich@feddit.org 2 months ago
Whatever things made people get into Android some 20 years ago are no longer relevant to the majority of people.
The biggest benefit will remain the apps. People love apps. In that regard, their only competition is Apple. It’s why no one can make a new phone OS.
The other reason is cost. If you want a cheap device, Apple has no such thing. There are hundreds of Android devices you can buy for a couple hundred dollars.
For those who buy Samsung flagships for more than an iPhone, well those people I can’t explain.
LiveLM@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
Well, it could be explained before: Flagship hardware without the restrictions of iOS.
Now…After this BS… Yeah, can’t explain.
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I can see apps become less important over time. PWAs were basically what Apple originally planed for the smartphone anyway and now they are capable of damn near anything you would want an app to do. No store to rely on. No updates to install. No storage space being eaten into. The browser engine functions as a layer of abstraction between the scary untrusted app and your own OS. It’s kinda perfect.
Fedditor385@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Unfortunately, that is 0.1% of their global market that is affected. So, they don’t really have much to lose.
Guidy@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Yup my first thought was “Where is your God now?”
Google ditched “Don’t be evil” a long time ago.