Edit: For what it’s worth, you can give Google feedback to stop this nonsense. Scroll down to Get Ready section and click on Share your feedback. You can use the following text as an example.
Android’s strength has always been in being both secure and open. Restricting sideloading goes against this principle and does little to protect users. The existing toggle and clear warnings are already enough to inform users of the risks.
Meanwhile, the Play Store itself continues to be the main source of Android malware. In 2023 alone, malicious apps on Google Play were downloaded over 600 million times. More recently, 77 infected apps with 19 million installs and 200+ other malicious apps with nearly 8 million installs slipped past Play Protect. These numbers make it clear where the real problem lies.
If Google truly wants to protect users, the focus should be on strengthening Play Store defenses. Android’s openness is not the threat; malware inside the official store is. Please prioritize fixing that instead of undermining one of Android’s core values.
I’m considering leaving Apple for Android for a very long time now. On my shortlist I have the Fairphone Gen 6 and the OnePlus 13. Other options are not possible. I don’t want Google or Samsung hardware, or any other manufacturers that make it difficult to unlock your bootloader.
One of the reasons is the freedom to install any app I want on my device, because it’s my device. But with the news about Google forcing developers to share their personal credentials it makes it difficult for me to go to Android. Basically Google is trying to kill sideloading. Should I even move to Android now or is Android with the limitation just like iOS?
Of course we should consider the near future. And in the near future, Android devices will still keep working exactly as they are now. And the devices mentioned will have the ability to not update to a sideloading-blocked version of Android. And the devices mentioned will still have the ability to put other operating systems on them, in case stock Android is not satisfactory anymore. And in the near future, Android will not get worse than iOS, as iOS is blocking sideloading already.
The “near future” comes in a few months in the form of Google’s Developer Verification, among other things.
Oh so your solution is to no longer install updates on your device?
It won’t matter. No one is going to develop apps just for the 0.01% of users with custom ROMs.
Who do you think the current downloaders of F-Droid apps are?
Anyone who wants apps from outside Google Play? 🤷
I think they’re actually the minority.
“minority” = <50%. Very different from 0.01%
You really think 0.01% of people downloading from F-Droid are doing it from a custom ROM?
No, I think 0.01% of all Android users are using a custom ROM that allows bypassing Google’s shitfuckery.
And they’re the majority target for F-Droid apps.
So, what are you suggesting? Staying on Apple where all of this is already the case?
Yes but there are many other advantages like processing power, battery life, etc.