Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Android’s new sideload settings will carry over to new devices

androidauthority.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 245 posts

Re: Android’s new sideload settings will carry over to new devices

#101

Post by goku12 »

packetlost wrote: post #47
hparadiz wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you know? If one elderly person gets scammed we all deserve to be infantilized.

Ok, but the vast majority of people do need their hand held because they're incompetent, naive, or both. IMO this is pro consumer move

This is as pro-consumer as cutting off one's nose to cure a cold. Let me say this for the... I don't know how many times, that security, child protection, scam prevention, terrorism, miniaturization, sophistication, etc are all lies peddled by trillion-dollar megacorps to justify their cash grab, and by despotic governments to justify their consolidation of power over citizens. Nobody wants to know why all those problems still occur despite these unpopular measures. Meanwhile, NONE of those draconian restrictions on users' freedom and privacy are technically necessary to achieve any of those ideals. It's a lie that they convince the people by repeating incessantly.

This is 2026, for God's sake! How long has this grift been playing out? At least two decades? What will it take people, much less the tech savvy ones, to learn that all these are designs of greedy and power lusting minds?

Re: Android’s new sideload settings will carry over to new devices

#102

Post by goku12 »

jojobas wrote: post #71
rockskon wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why the hell should we "mother may I" with Google for running apps on our own phones if it isn't sourced from the Play Store? The "security" rationale is horseshit given just how much malware is readily download able on the Play Store. Google never cleans its own house before going after others.

Somehow if you replace Google with Apple in the same sentence you'll get cursed to hell. Go figure.

Says who? The fanbois? What makes you think that ordinary people are any happier with Apple's abuses than Google's? This is not a worthwhile justification for what either one of them does.

Re: Android’s new sideload settings will carry over to new devices

#103

Post by Taterr »

schubidubiduba wrote: post #85
Taterr wrote: post #78

None of the comments here seem to discuss or even mention how this situation looks from googles perspective? I feel like HN readers are not aware of the scale of the problem they face or their motivation behind these changes. If you look at the rate of growth of the call/text scam industry I think it's entirely possible that android owners are getting scammed out of more money than google themselves makes on the andr…

Why does nobody ever think of the poor megacorporation? I mean maybe you're even right and they care a little bit about people being scammed. But if you believe that the scamming thing is any more than a pretense for further establishing Google's absolute control over the Android ecosystem, that is just very naive. Their goal is to make money. Apps installed outside of Google mean less money for them. Ergo, consumer'…

I understand usually the megacorporation is simply being anti-consumer with these kinds of changes, and who knows maybe this is the same. But I think this might be an actual exception. They seem to be actually implementing a lot of high effort scam protection features recently in android so unless they did all of that just as an excuse to make side loading harder then they've fooled me.

https://security.googleblog.com/2026/02/strengthening-androi... https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/safety-secu...

For more context, the the "reason" they're increasing the friction in sideloading is to prevent one extremely specific scam where someone instructs you over the phone to download a malicious android app, which then steals your banks 2 factor verification code from your notifications and sends it to the scammers. The 24 hour limitation does seem specifically designed to prevent that so I'm inclined to believe them.

Re: Android’s new sideload settings will carry over to new devices

#104

Post by xigoi »

Taterr wrote: post #78

None of the comments here seem to discuss or even mention how this situation looks from googles perspective? I feel like HN readers are not aware of the scale of the problem they face or their motivation behind these changes. If you look at the rate of growth of the call/text scam industry I think it's entirely possible that android owners are getting scammed out of more money than google themselves makes on the andr…

Google’s perspective is that they don’t want people to install NewPipe so that the CEO can buy more yachts.

Re: Android’s new sideload settings will carry over to new devices

#105

Post by goku12 »

Two steps forwards and one step backwards in the never-ending march to dytopia and you celebrate it as a show of your generosity and benevolence! I don't know who you're trying to fool. But I'm certainly interested in finding out, because that person must be both naïve and incredibly powerful if you think that it's worthwhile to pull off a public charade like this.

Re: Android’s new sideload settings will carry over to new devices

#106

Post by tsoukase »

The first thing I do with any new phone is to enable developer mode. If it is weekend, I will use adb to sideload, if not, I will do it in next weekend as I don't have much time at workdays. In any case the sideloading will be done on the same day as now. Problem solved.

Re: Android’s new sideload settings will carry over to new devices

#107

Post by 28304283409234 »

Havoc wrote: post #73

We hereby grant you a conditional right to install software on the device you "own", subject to conditions, and terms, but only under certain circumstances and only so long as it pleases us. Modern handheld computing is such a shitshow...

"hand held computing" indeed.

Re: Android’s new sideload settings will carry over to new devices

#108

Post by vanviegen »

izacus wrote: post #93
eloox wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be, but I think you are missing the point of the outrage: this solution is not good.

So let's discuss a good solution instead of this boring repetitive outrage.

Look at the attack vectors that are actually being used, and address them specifically, with minimally invasive measures.

If the problem is apps that allow remote control of your device, that people can be socially engineered into installing, put up barriers to gaining just that permissions. That approach would actually help motivate the problem (as scammers can now just use Google-approved apps for such things).

If the problem is ads that are pushing scams, Google could start with eradicating them from their own network. They seem to be the primary source. And, god forbid, perhaps even offer an ad blocker integrated in Android. (Yeah, I know.)

If the problem is scammers pretending to be a friend or family member in need of help though social apps, Google could force these apps to help users identify these cases (using local privacy friendly heuristics is course) for inclusion in the Play Store. And no, they wouldn't be able to demand the same from apps installed from elsewhere, but that should be firmly outside of their sphere of responsibility. And casual users would be extremely like to stick with the default app store anyhow.

Note that all three of these proposals provide a measure of safety from the problems they are addressing much larger than what Google is attempting by banning all non-Google-authorized applications.

Re: Android’s new sideload settings will carry over to new devices

#109

Post by goku12 »

Taterr wrote: post #78

None of the comments here seem to discuss or even mention how this situation looks from googles perspective? I feel like HN readers are not aware of the scale of the problem they face or their motivation behind these changes. If you look at the rate of growth of the call/text scam industry I think it's entirely possible that android owners are getting scammed out of more money than google themselves makes on the andr…

Their solution to every problem is to take away more control of the smartphones each time from the users who own them. Meanwhile, I have much less problems with scam and security issues and more freedom with software off FDroid. Makes you wonder if the actual problem is perhaps the one coming up with these solutions and their malevolent intentions behind a thin veil of laughable PR. Besides, I don't get people's habit of justifying trillion dollar corporations that can't seem to come up with any non-dystopian solutions.

Re: Android’s new sideload settings will carry over to new devices

#110

Post by slim »

tsoukase wrote: post #106

The first thing I do with any new phone is to enable developer mode. If it is weekend, I will use adb to sideload, if not, I will do it in next weekend as I don't have much time at workdays. In any case the sideloading will be done on the same day as now. Problem solved.

they will make you wait 1 week to enable developer mode
Post reply on HN