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  • Hacker News
  • I'm excited to see what innovations, and new personal control over devices will be driven by the community out of this bad decision by Google.
  • I remember when sideloading referred to running `adb sideload` for installing applications from a remote host. The Android modding community has been scattered to the winds of time, it seems.
  • I am going to either buy a CommodoreOS phone (Jolla) or a Linux phone (TBD) at this point for any such purchases;

    I currently have old phones who do not have this restriction, but if Google Play did this, I'd already be ready with Aptoid and ready to disable Play Store if I need to.

  • Note that this mechanism IS ALREADY IN android phones, with currently play store services accepting side loading, but once that app upgrades (independent of even android upgrades) and so this is not like "your next phone restricts side loading", side loading will suddenly fail on your current phone.
  • I still don't understand whether this affects me if I have Google Play Store disabled and Google Play Protect disabled, will still affect me if I have Google Play Services enabled or do I have to disable them, install what I want and then reenable them? Sounds like quite stupid workflow, though not too worrysome.
  • I am not a fan of Apple or Google, but there is no other option that works with my everyday essential apps (e.g banking)?
  • I almost never use dedicated apps. I am able to access all my bank and other financial accounts through their websites on mobile, no problem. (Vanadium browser on GrapheneOS)
  • (warning dumb question incoming): since android apps are java, is it possible for a third contender to create a jvm for their platform and some hooks for android api’s and run anything that was made for them?
  • I miss when websites made it possible to do essential things in my daily life without requiring I install something on my device.
  • Petitions never do anything. Reverse engineering does.
  • The only reason I chose Android was being able to install my own "native" apps without Google having a say. If that function is gone, I simply have no reason to use Android, I actually like IOS better in terms of UI, so I'll just move to Apple's ecosystem...

    While using alternative OS on older Android devices.

  • You can still install your own apps and in my case your own operating system (graphene). The 24 hour wait to activate sideloads indefinitely seems like a non-issue to me.

    https://support.google.com/android/answer/17588095

  • Guess it's a good thing that Android can't install updates via Ethernet, but I only connect my phone via Ethernet. My next phone is going to be a Linux phone, though, I guess.
  • Why is it called side-loading here? Isn't that just downloading?
  • Downloading and installing an app from a source other than the official store included with the OS.

    Because that is a mouthful people named it "sideloading".

  • There's an `adb sideload` command for installing an app on your phone from your PC, with the file on your PC, it's like a remote install. For some reason some people also use the term to refer to installing stuff via apks in general, but if you download an apk from your phone's browser and then open it and install it, that is not sideloading AFAIK.
    by opan
  • It's installing, not just downloading.
  • We should stop calling it "side-loading" and start calling it "front-loading." App store primacy in the users' minds is a cancer.
  • It's sad that Tuta has fallen for Big Tech newspeak. Once upon a time, we installed stuff on our devices. Calling it side-something makes it seem frowned upon, which plays right into Google's hand.
  • Sideloading is a type of installing defined by the source of the file(s) being installed. Google will still allow installing from the Play store. The distinction is valid.
  • > we installed stuff on our devices

    I am not sure about that. Windows, Linux based devices were like that but for a lot of things like gaming consoles etc. you were locked into the ecosystem and 'side loading" was indeed something.

    I do understand developer mindset but I would be pretty unhappy if my mother's phone could just install stuff. A lot of people get harmed and lose their life's saving over wrongly installed crap.

    A good middle ground for the Big Tech is to let folks pay $$, a money that is high enough and has sufficient friction.

  • It's not newspeak, we've been calling it sideloading since the 90s
  • It's a blue-bubblification, something which tricks the mind.
120 days until Google restricts side-loading, declaring war on Android freedom · Birbla