Sideloading is critical to app dev so my uninformed guess here is that it will come down to flipping a switch in Developer Options to allow unsigned/unverified apps. I understand the reasoning (there's been a huge uptick in Android malware) but they're not being particularly transparent about this.
I thought it had to do with the Epic Lawsuits. Basicly, because Android allowed Sideloading and Apple doesn't, the Google Play Store has a monopoly android Devices, while the Apple Store isn't a monopoly on Apple devices.
looking at the screenshots of developer console you probably have to bless your builds with the play store to install it at all, even as the developer. nothing runs without their permission.
I would have thought that people side loading apps would know what they're doing, and so would know how to avoid malware... I've honestly only sideloaded a couple of times in all the years I've been using an Android device. All you have to do is double-check the source of the apk and scan the file.
that's already the case. i doubt that's the point. if you read the article it goes into detail what they're requiring.
Transparency is really not helping all the speculation and doomerism here. Honestly this was also what I thought for next year. Beta testing is gonna be even tougher if the change goes as people expected it to be, if they didn't add a developer switch to allow unverified apps.
*Lack of transparency, but apparently the character limit + my mind being floating in the air sucks right now.
Yes, I was thinking about that. How do you even test an app that you are currently developing under these conditions ?
i'm sure google will be happy to sell you the solution to the problem they created
isn’t this already the case? you have to enable apps from unverified sources on android
Yes, but it looks like they're going further than that with this announcement. Until they say what the heck it actually means, it's all speculation right now (and the lack of transparency isn't a good look)
Of course it's not a secret that they don't like third party app stores either, and that is absolutely a backhanded part of this. I'm just reserving judgment on how drastic this change is until they reveal how it's implemented.
Do they even hate F-Droid? That would sound insane because I thought the whole point of them being convinced about the open source model was that you can look at the app's code so you can verify if it's safer
It's likely that this applies only to the device's own APK installer and installing via ADB is business as usual.