155
Google wants to make sideloading Android apps safer by verifying developers’ identities
(androidauthority.com)
this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2025
155 points (89.3% liked)
Android
20129 readers
93 users here now
The new home of /r/Android on Lemmy and the Fediverse!
Android news, reviews, tips, and discussions about rooting, tutorials, and apps.
🔗Universal Link: !android@lemdro.id
💡Content Philosophy:
Content which benefits the community (news, rumours, and discussions) is generally allowed and is valued over content which benefits only the individual (technical questions, help buying/selling, rants, self-promotion, etc.) which will be removed if it's in violation of the rules.
Support, technical, or app related questions belong in: !askandroid@lemdro.id
For fresh communities, lemmy apps, and instance updates: !lemdroid@lemdro.id
📰Our communities below
Rules
-
Stay on topic: All posts should be related to the Android OS or ecosystem.
-
No support questions, recommendation requests, rants, or bug reports: Posts must benefit the community rather than the individual. Please post to !askandroid@lemdro.id.
-
Describe images/videos, no memes: Please include a text description when sharing images or videos. Post memes to !androidmemes@lemdro.id.
-
No self-promotion spam: Active community members can post their apps if they answer any questions in the comments. Please do not post links to your own website, YouTube, blog content, or communities.
-
No reposts or rehosted content: Share only the original source of an article, unless it's not available in English or requires logging in (like Twitter). Avoid reposting the same topic from other sources.
-
No editorializing titles: You can add the author or website's name if helpful, but keep article titles unchanged.
-
No piracy or unverified APKs: Do not share links or direct people to pirated content or unverified APKs, which may contain malicious code.
-
No unauthorized polls, bots, or giveaways: Do not create polls, use bots, or organize giveaways without first contacting mods for approval.
-
No offensive or low-effort content: Don't post offensive or unhelpful content. Keep it civil and friendly!
-
No affiliate links: Posting affiliate links is not allowed.
Quick Links
Our Communities
- !askandroid@lemdro.id
- !androidmemes@lemdro.id
- !techkit@lemdro.id
- !google@lemdro.id
- !nothing@lemdro.id
- !googlepixel@lemdro.id
- !xiaomi@lemdro.id
- !sony@lemdro.id
- !samsung@lemdro.id
- !galaxywatch@lemdro.id
- !oneplus@lemdro.id
- !motorola@lemdro.id
- !meta@lemdro.id
- !apple@lemdro.id
- !microsoft@lemdro.id
- !chatgpt@lemdro.id
- !bing@lemdro.id
- !reddit@lemdro.id
Lemmy App List
Chat and More
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Ridiculous, mother of bullshit! Switching to Linux appears to be the only option left for a personal computing device.
I really hope phones get better Linux support soon... it really isn't daily driver material for most phones at the moment.
In this time and age, do you still doubt that Linux might be outlawed for consumers? To prevent criminal activity, of course /s.
They already consider you a criminal if you use grapheneOS on a pixel. It's not a joke.
Just turn off Google Play Protect and it'll let you sideload whatever you want.
Where did you hear this? I've seen a couple of articles on this now but none of them have mentioned its specifically play protect or that it can be turned off
You can't seriously actually trust that turning it off in the Google owned app they control or update will be meaningful. I'm really sick of people claiming it is, and I hope this will get them to realize that.
If you want to crush it fully, disable google play store as a whole, and make sure to tell your friends too because if that solution doesn't get more popular there might not be third party apps to install since the devs will just quit.
I dunno, you're the one claiming stuff that isn't necessarily true (yet). This is a proposed update to Google Play Protect. You don't have to have Google Play Protect enabled, and disabling it doesn't really impact anything unless you're the type of person to just download an apk from unverified sources.
I keep play protect enabled in case I download anything unsafe.
Not really necessary if you limit your APK sources to trusted sources like apkmirror or github.
Github is not a trusted source. Anyone can dump apk files over there.
Honestly we need a community OS like Android/Chome OS
I like Linux but it would be really cool to have a OS that was less modular and more purpose built. I feel like there is enough people interested that we could raise some money to hire some developers. On think Chome OS and Android get right is the hassle free unified experience.
There's GrapheneOS that I think would try to address this problem — secure, proper architecture, compatible with some major app stack (e.g. Android apps). It's AOSP-based, but they're already thinking ahead up to a point where they would be forced to fork it and even work with OEMs to create their own phone hardware for it. There are a couple of threads on their Mastodon.
I don't know how much they would be able to achieve, but I would pay for such system.
Graphene doesn't play nice with others
Yes, unfortunately. It's their con, but also their pro at the same time. It's bad because they end up isolated from everyone else playing nice with each other, and then no one wants to deal with them, but they also don't agree on compromises that might hinder security or the stability and development of their project. And I respect that. That is partly a reason why they created probably the most secure and private AOSP distrubution nowadays.
I call BS on that one. It feels more to me like they are seeking power and control. They could seriously benefit from working with other projects but they don't.
Wait until you find out what Android is under the UI.
While its true Android runs on the Linux kernel, its not Linux. There are many differences and restrictions.
rips off mask
It is a vendor kernel!
"Switching to GNU" would have removed the ambiguity