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Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

9to5google.com

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Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#321

Post by Ferret7446 »

The only silver lining I see is if it allows you to bypass this by enabling dev mode on your phone. If you can't sideload unverified apps even in dev mode, that would be insanely bad.

IF that is the case, I'm actually willing to be slightly inclined to see this as a positive? We should normalize installing apps outside of Google Play, but that means malware becomes a serious issue with people downloading and installing random APKs.

e.g., this may normalize people hosting downloadable APKs whilst also reducing malware risk for "normies", which idealistically could weaken the "monopoly" of Google Play on android.

The problem is that Google is the gatekeeper.

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#322

Post by ycombinatrix »

mysteria wrote: post #58

The article didn't say much about the account approval process, but from the looks of it Google will be able to arbitrarily accept and revoke applications as they see fit. So much for an open platform, bring forth the gatekeeping! Personally I would be fine with unsigned apps requiring the user to click through a notice before install, or having a setting to toggle to enable unsigned apps. Windows does something simi…

That notice already exists. In fact there are 2 or 3 extra confirmations required to sideload apps today.

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#325

Post by ycombinatrix »

abeyer wrote: post #155

Even aside from the privacy implications (which aren't trivial themselves,) Doesn't this make it prohibitively difficult to do local builds of open source projects? It's been a long time since I've done this, but my recollection was that the process to do this was essentially you would build someone else's (the project's) package/namespace up through signing, but sign it locally with your own dev keys. A glance at th…

Not just difficult - it becomes impossible. You can no longer develop any android app without Google's approval, just like iOS. The official emulators might not even work.

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#326

Post by bobajeff »

Kim_Bruning wrote: post #140

I never really got into "phone" progrmaming, always waiting for the shenanigans to die down. But somehow the shanigans have gotten worse and for a significant chunk of the world population, the phone is the only computation device they have at all.

You now need to have an online account to setup and login on a Windows desktop. It's obvious what the trend is and it's not allowing consumers control over their stuff.

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#327

Post by Workaccount2 »

I don't blame Goggle. Apple escaped anti-trust by simply not allowing anyone except themselves to put software on iPhones. Seriously, Apple doesn't allow competitors so it can't be anti-competitive according to the case.

Totally brain damaged ruling, the judge must have been molested by an Android phone at some point, but here we are, and google is now moving closer to an Apple model.

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#328

Post by ycombinatrix »

87636899376 wrote: post #14

Official announcement: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/08/elevating-... More info: https://developer.android.com/developer-verification https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ... Personally...we all know the Play Store is chock full of malicious garbage, so the verification requirements there don't do jack to protect users. The way I see it, this is nothing but a power grab, a way…

Play Protect is just spyware to monitor app usage & exploitation. It doesn't prevent or protect anything.

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#329

Post by nicce »

rpdillon wrote: post #290
zmmmmm wrote: post #183

The worst part is the Orwellian opening sentence they start with in their blog post [0]: > You shouldn’t have to choose between open and secure 2+2=5 Truly the end of an era. I've spent nearly two decades buying Android phones because of a single checkbox in settings that let me have the freedom I consider essential to any computing device that I own. In a way, it's liberating, I've missed out on a lot from the Apple…

Very much my exact feelings. I had the first Android phone ever and even wrote my own APKs and enjoyed the freedom of the mobile platform that let me install my own software. But it's been close to 20 years and maybe it's time to check out the other side, as much as I despise Apple's locked down ecosystem.

Maybe it is time to try Jolla as next phone:

https://jolla.com/

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