Looks like Android is looking to kill sideloading

krooton

krooton

krooton

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All apps will need to be approved before they can be installed, even when sideloading rather than from the Playstore.

September 2026 looks to be a real kick in the knackers. :(

 
Not a fan of this at all, far too much OSes are going down this kind of route and it is not a good thing. It is one step along the road to being able to lock down and control the internet. I can understand some restrictions for general consumers but power users should still be catered for and have options.
 
Ooft.
Yes I have to say if Apple pop. Out phones with better cams they become an option after this.
 
The whole draw of Android, for me at least, was that you had the option to tinker with it if you so wished. Things like actually having access to the file system and sideloading were huge benefits. This really sucks.
 
Who is sideloading apps in 2025? And what? Is that not available in the Play Store? Early days of Android, yeah, ROMSs, rooting, backup. These days, it is all native.

I have only sideloaded 1 application in the past 7+ years!
 
I've never side loaded anything I don't think. But for the average user how much of this is a big deal, genuinely curious, this forum is going to be a clear exception to the rule I think.
 
Side loading I still do basically just installing apk no effort needed just make sure to use safe source my main ones are the popular music streaming and no ads YouTube for free

Never bothered with rooting , custom roms was good when no issues with GPay and bank apps to revive old phones that stopped software support
 
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I suspect this will end up being a storm in a tea-cup, if Apple have been forced to open up to 3rd party app stores then there's zero danger that Google are going to get away with going the other way and forcing just the Play Store.
 
I panicked a bit when I first saw this; we dev Android apps for a number of clients who don't want them on the Playstore. Apparently there are just a few extra hoops to jump through to get our company re-registered on some new developer platform and then it's business as usual.
 
tom_e said:
I've not side loaded/rooted/used custom roms in probably a decade years ago this may have annoyed me but these days I won't even notice
Click to expand...

Likewise but I think for the bigger picture this is not good at all in terms of innovation and who has control, which has implications for progress and freedom.

chrismscotland said:
I suspect this will end up being a storm in a tea-cup, if Apple have been forced to open up to 3rd party app stores then there's zero danger that Google are going to get away with going the other way and forcing just the Play Store.
Click to expand...

They are much less likely to be held to account on things like that though if generally things are more locked down.
 
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I sideload apps to read my glucose monitors in realtime, this could really **** me off
 
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