I wrote this a long time ago, but I think it's still pertinent

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/42024710

Android apps are blocking sideloading and forcing Google Play versions instead

You might sideload an Android app, or manually install its APK package, if you're using a custom version of Android that doesn't include Google's Play Store. Alternately, the app might be experimental, under development, or perhaps no longer maintained and offered by its developer. Until now, the existence of sideload-ready APKs on the web was something that seemed to be tolerated, if warned against, by Google.

This quiet standstill is being shaken up by a new feature in Google's Play Integrity API. As reported by Android Authority, developer tools to push "remediation" dialogs during sideloading debuted at Google's I/O conference in May, have begun showing up on users' phones. Sideloaders of apps from the British shop Tesco, fandom app BeyBlade X, and ChatGPT have reported "Get this app from Play" prompts, which cannot be worked around. An Android gaming handheld user encountered a similarly worded prompt from Diablo Immortal on their device three months ago.

Google's Play Integrity API is how apps have previously blocked access when loaded onto phones that are in some way modified from a stock OS with all Google Play integrations intact. Recently, a popular two-factor authentication app blocked access on rooted phones, including the security-minded GrapheneOS. Apps can call the Play Integrity API and get back an "integrity verdict," relaying if the phone has a "trustworthy" software environment, has Google Play Protect enabled, and passes other software checks.

Graphene has questioned the veracity of Google's Integrity API and SafetyNet Attestation systems, recommending instead standard Android hardware attestation. Rahman notes that apps do not have to take an all-or-nothing approach to integrity checking. Rather than block installation entirely, apps could call on the API only during sensitive actions, issuing a warning there. But not having a Play Store connection can also deprive developers of metrics, allow for installation on incompatible devices (and resulting bad reviews), and, of course, open the door to paid app piracy.

Ignoring the context.

Don't pirate over Telegram, it's no longer safe in terms of privacy and legal safety.

While trying to make a list about piracy, I realized that it's pointless and that at the current day, legal free stuff is way more than paywalled stuff, if you are looking at the right places.

Also in my opinion, if free offering companies got big they will rise their products quality and eventually will normalize the culture of getting your stuff for free, instead of paying for it or pirating it.

So that bring me back to this question, is there is any currently active list of legal free stuff?

For those of you that know, I'm trying to find a niche community, forum, chat room, whatever of individuals that could give me some pointers on cracking an OFX plugin. My knowledge ends at simple standalone exes and the communities I know of seem largely focused on game cracking.

If you know of a community that you think would help me on my journey, feel free to share. You can also send me a private message if you need to be discrete.

Hey, I am new to the whole automated media server thing, and I would like to know if there is a wiki dedicated to every Arr app. Even an article mentioning the names of them would help.

Imagine if Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Cox banded together for a showdown against the studios accusing them of liability? AT&T runs an NSA stronghold in Manhattan, they're not going to let their darlings go down in a teeny lawsuit like this. I really want to see this happening. Let them fight.

Telegram is no longer safe for piracy.

I bet they will start kicking out piracy channels in few weeks.

I am going to delete my account now as it will become useless soon anyway.

I haven't used Photoshop in my Windows machine for a while. I only used it to do occasional stuff to my photos that simple photo editors cannot do.

When I opened the app, I was greeted with a banner and a dialogue box stating "this Adobe app is non-genuine and will be disabled soon". (Both were written in Japanese though the original app's language is set to English. I think it has something to do with my VPN.) I couldn't figure what the buttons said but one seems to redirect me to an Adobe subscription page and the other simply closes the app.

I don't have experience pirating stuff like this. I got help from another friend long ago in downloading the whole suite of Adobe products from what I think is a Russian source. I am pretty sure they told me to set up firewall restrictions for the app as well, and I haven't touched the installer or anything similar since then. I don't know if there is something I can do about this or if I should download an 'updated version' of the app from some other source.

In my opinion, FMHY has turned into a search engine (they have more than 10,000 links) rather than a simple list of resources.

That is why I am planning on creating a simple and mentainable list of resources, where all of the links would be checked periodically in Virustotal and offline websites would be removed almost instantly.

Which bring me to the following question, what is the best service to host this, any suggestions(preferably open source)?

It was the only way to watch anime with romanian subtitles, as there are no legal services that offer romanian subtitles, not even crunchyroll. The community was also very good, with people dedicated to translating, subbing, encoding and uploading

Their domain anime.kage.ro now redirects to the private tracker animetorrents.ro now. Most (but not all) of the series have been migrated there. A sad day to see the only active fansubbing community from here go away :(

I am just impressed by the idea and execution. Just wow. Too bad he took it too far.