I’m seeing a bunch of posts about how Google has decided to stop allowing side loading on Android phones. But the EU relatively recently forced Apple to do the exact opposite. Won’t they just do the same thing for Android phones? Sure, people outside the EU market will lose this ability as a default, but presumably you can just order a Euro phone on ebay if you are outside the EU.
So why is everyone panicking? I think Google is definitely being shitty by trying to do this, and I support the development of other open source alternatives. I like the fact that this could be a big wakeup call for that effort. But I am wondering if this is also not as big of a deal as everyone is making out.
Android will still allow sideloading in future. They are making it harder, but compared to Apple (even in the EU), their new policies are still more open.
For example, you will still be able to download an APK from github (as long as it is signed, which generally is the case when the app is available on google play) - but you can’t do this with an iPhone.
Edit: Everyone is panicking because nobody knows Google’s next move. Maybe they will restrict which apps are allowed, maybe block some apps they don’t like (like unofficial youtube clients), or block sideloading completely in a future release.
most open source apps are not available on the play store, most developers will not accept having to hand over their government ID to google, and this will stop most future open source developers from creating anything for android
people are panicking because what we know so far is bad enough already
You seem to not know what you’re talking about. I trust F-Droid and their interpretation of what Google is doing and what I have read from Google about what they’re doing, and you aren’t quite grasping it.
No, this is correct. What F-Droid worries about is that a lot of open source apps aren’t signed and that the developers don’t want to verify their id with Google, which would prevent distribution.
All APK from f-droid are signed. Just not with a key approved by Google.
Yes, that is what I meant.
But doesn’t f-droid build and sign with a repository key themselves (therefore prooving that the app comes from the source)? If this is the case only f-droid repos would need to validate a key with Google
Potentially, but I doubt Google would accept it.
I trust f-droid too. Their approach to building apps is truly at risk. But as of the Google blog article, installing apks is not affected as long as they are signed.
The apk on f-droid already must be signed by the developer or f-droid. The problem is developers don’t want anything to do with google. If they wanted to submit their personal details to Google, they’d already use the play store?
https://f-droid.org/2023/09/03/reproducible-builds-signing-keys-and-binary-repos.html
“as long as they are signed”
As long as you want to pay the fee and have your identity and address verified and get big brothers permission to have it signed. A lot of people who make apks don’t want to do all that so they can freely release their apk for the appreciation of anyone who would want to use it. “As long as they are signed” is nearly gatekeeping away anyone who wants to make a program without monetizing or gaining from it in any way.
I’m going to go ahead and say that ‘side loading’ is something that does not require approval or authorization from the owner of the system that does the ‘regular loading’. So if it requires google authorization, it’s not ‘side loading’, it’s alternative regular loading. Your attitude is very ‘segregation won’t affect you if you’re white’.