Google: “Based on this feedback and our ongoing conversations with the community, we are building a new advanced flow that allows experienced users to accept the risks of installing software that isn’t verified. We are designing this flow specifically to resist coercion, ensuring that users aren’t tricked into bypassing these safety checks while under pressure from a scammer. It will also include clear warnings to ensure users fully understand the risks involved, but ultimately, it puts the choice in their hands.”
Thank god. I would’ve ditched Android for good if this went through, and while it sounds like it would be annoying for casual users to enable unverified apps, at least we can still install them.
For now. You just wait. Evil corp is gonna evil corp it all up.
I miss the days when their slogan was “Don’t be evil”
Yeah, Google used to be the “Cool” company back then. I used to root for them.
No freaking way this was because of “feedback”. This was because the European Commission will keep escalating their fines if Google keeps at it with the monopoly bullshit.
It’s not sideloading, it’s installing. Stop giving into this idea that installing other apps is somehow bypassing normal methods!
Google: "Based on this feedback and our ongoing conversations with the community, we are building a new advanced flow that allows experienced users to accept the risks of installing software that isn’t verified.
And we will NEVER trust you again because we know you’ll retry this next year or so in a few smaller steps that all have cutesy innocent names that are supposed to lull us in a false sense of security
Fuck Google, stop paying them for anything, stop using their services wherever possible.
Wait, so Google listened to our feedback, and we’re still mad? What would a positive outcome have looked like?
I think it was fairly obvious that the move was going to piss people off, they just misjudged to what extent. Modern business strategy is to claim to listen to customer feedback and just quietly plan to implement it anyway, just do it more subtly, more quietly, and more slowly.
I would understand the outrage if Google didn’t stick to their word, but unless I’ve missed something, they’ve not, have they? Are we now protesting that they reversed their decision? Wasn’t this what we wanted?
Are we now protesting that they reversed their decision?
…no? I’m not really protesting so much as offering what I think the other person is trying to say. I think they are saying that Google crossed a line, and walking it back doesn’t change that fact.
In my opinion, Google has crossed countless lines over the last 5-10 years. I’m looking for alternatives that meet my own needs. That search has accelerated over the last few years, when the things Google has done have been most egregious. This isn’t a protest. This is disillusionment. I’m abandoning ship.
That’s a unique perspective. Thanks for sharing.
Good news! But it doesn’t change the fact that Google tried to do this in the first place.
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Err, that’s not true on the last fee devices I’ve used, Pixels and a Fairphone. Installing apps from APK files doesn’t require me to enable dev options. In fact trying to install an APK from say Files brings me straight to the permission setting. It’s also per-app. It can be accessed under Settings > Apps > Special app access > Install unknown apps.
That’s not what the phrase “dark pattern” means.
That’s not a dark pattern…
dark pattern
This is not what dark pattern means.
Also, I don’t think enabling developer options is required to install arbitrary APKs.
It’s still worse than before. Really need to break mobile away from Google and Apple. Preferably as close to standard Linux as possible
AOSP makes a lot more sense to me. We just need to adopt Graphene or Lineage en masse and start contributing to support more devices, grow that out into a real alternative with support for the already existing android app ecosystem, and real alternatives to Google Play services
Graphene doesn’t fix the problem because it’s only available on Pixel devices
Try reading what I said
We are designing this flow specifically to resist coercion, ensuring that users aren’t tricked into bypassing these safety checks while under pressure from a scammer.
Translation: if they want scamware, it better be from Google Play, where Google gets a 30% cut. On top of the cut they got for the phishing link in Google Ads.
And if anything thinks I’m being hyperbolic, go on Google Play and search for pretty much anything. Or turn off your adblocker.
Helped a disabled pensioner recently with her phone that kept plaging loud obnoxious ads at her even while locked.
She had 4 different “virus scanners” that were all fake adware.
The fee is 15% below the first $1M of revenue and it should go without saying that app developers only pay that fee for paid apps, in-app purchases or digital subscriptions. It’s very unlikely that a scam app would be paid, or work off a subscription, and if those phishing ads are doing their conversions, you’ll never see the user again.
I doubt Google’s making more than a few cents off each of these scam apps.
Google gets a cut from the Google Ads click, which takes the user directly to the Play Store (or, if on desktop, the Chrome extension store).
If it’s some free shovelware app, they get a cut from the ads spammed onto the user’s screen. If it’s a sham subscription app, they get a cut of that. I see this a lot test clicking ads these days.
If its legit phishing, that’s a fair point; they don’t get a direct cut of the scam, other than the attention it drives towards their app stores and the data they collect for the user’s profile. But the point I’m trying to make is that it’s incredibly hypocritical to paint 3rd party apps (and indeed any competing app store) as a danger when they do such a poor job policing their own store. They may have a point, but it doesn’t really tackle scamware unless they change their moderation habits.
… continues to make Play Integrity an integral part of Android and making all the stupid banking and govt apps requiring having it on your phone thus making it harder to de-google.
still no… fuck you.
I’m just waiting for the moment Valve also decides to enter the mobile market :)
Well, they do have few mobile devices with Ryzen and QC chips, they have been investing heavily in Linux OS recently, so crossing fingers Libre phone would collaborate with them to release Libre Phone Black Magick to the gamers, that would sway a big chunk of Android enthusiasts to switch, and then apps would follow.
If they decide to make the Steam Deck 2 actually a Steam Phone with controller attachments that could be a way for them to enter the mobile hardware.
Google is paving the ground for Linuxphones.
It’s so blatantly obvious how evil they’ve become that it makes striving for alternatives a necessity.$100 says they’re just going to make it require adb.
I’m guessing they’re going to hide it in developer tools with a bunch of warnings and no explanation on how to get there so regular users don’t turn it on by accident.
Which would actually make sense.
Did you read the article?
The company is building a new ‘advanced flow’ that allows these users to accept the risks of installing unverified apps. Previously, the only permitted method for experienced users to install apps from unverified developers was to use ADB.
Google never actually mentioned ADB, so the article and you are misinformed.
It is you who is misinformed, because they did specifically say you will be able to bypass it with ADB (which now is going to be made easier, presumably).
One place they said so is here: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/09/lets-talk-security-answering-your-top.html
That was the plan before this latest announcement. Presumably this will be something different, hopefully allowing F-Droid and friends to keep working on-device somehow.
If you need to use adb to set a flag once that’s not too bad I suppose…
Oh no nothing so user-friendly. They’re gonna require them to be loaded via adb every time. And they’ll say that’s the only way they could do it for security or some shit.
They’ll make it requiring registration to enter a developer program or something to let you install crap.
Which would not be that much of a problem if not for the first 2 weeks, until someone put out a GUI to do it, with integration with app stores to download automatically the app…
oh wait…
They’ve already lost my trust. GrapheneOS or LineageOS are the only safe bets now.
Eh, I’m probably gonna ditch that smartphone thing anyways, at least for a while. Android becoming a closed-off garden was the last straw and I was kinda looking forward trying to go without a phone to test if I can adapt. I started leaving the house without my phone more and more and I kinda like it.
Sure, it’s fun and convenient to have the Internet in my pocket. Heck, it’s even required in some cases, but this digital mess we are currently in is too much for me. I remember how I was looking forward having one back then; I was really looking forward having acces to the Interney wherever I was, but nowadays I kinda miss being less conected from all the bullshit especially when outside.
I guess I could get a linuxphone one day if I miss having a phone (if I somehow manage to completely remove the smartphone from my life in the first place).
Literally idk why people are saying “If this happens I’ll switch to an iPhone”
Like bruh Apple is even a more closed off walled garden? What sort of sense does that make to switch to something twice as expensive and gives you absolutely no control?
Even if Google decided to implement this in the future, I will never switch to an iPhone and neither should you
As opposed to what, buying a viable phone from those other guys?
What other guys?
At minimum a stampede of people moving to iPhones should theoretically cause Google to shit enough of a brick (providing capitalism actually works as advertised, and for the record I am trying like hell to keep a straight face as I type this) to correct their behavior in an attempt to win some of those users back.
Because at the end of the day most consumers are consumers, not nerds, and if neither platform is going to allow you control over your device and they’re both privacy nightmares you’re not much worse off with an iDevice if you plan on owning a smartphone in the first place.
What we really need is a viable third option. Hopefully an inherently non-shitty one. The barrier to market entry seems pretty high, though.
