Starting next year, Google will begin to verify the identities of developers distributing their apps on Android devices, not just those who distribute via the Play Store.
Verify my balls, Google.
if you’ve ever sent a nude, they probably can.
I’d be careful yknow, I hear they hired Barry Zuckercorn
He’s very good!
How are they going to enforce this? Is side loading getting some extra signing step only Google can provide?
I shouldn’t need to go through Google at all to release an Android app if it’s not on their store. This is bullshit
Any device with Google Play services will enforce this. Any device that does not have Google Apps and services will not enforce this.
In this case, China actually has a leg up over the West because they haven’t had Google Play services for a long time.
I’m so glad I degoogled my phone already. Fuck Google!
I know right. I am degoogle class of 2019, and I’m so glad to have done so.
China is pushing in the same direction. The government want to develop Harmony OS that is gonna have compatibility issues with .apk installs and they could design it in such a way to make VPNs unusable. China is a State Capitalist regime, they will learn all the tricks that the west is using and do their capitalism with an even more stronger grip.
China is not FOSS friendly. Remember how Reddit is keep nagging you to install their app and make an account. Well in China, a lot of their platform/services doesn’t even have a desktop client, or even a web browser log-in. You can try visiting some of the mainland Chinese websites yourself. They force you to enter a phone number to sign up and some even require you to scan qr code with their phone app to log in to the website (meaning you’re supposed to sign up in their phone app first, PC use is considered “secondary”). Almost everything requires an app on a smartphone.
Edit: P.S. Overseas Chinese Citizens need to download a government spyware app on their phone in order to submit an application to renew passports. I know because my father is a PRC citizen.
We are looking at nothing less than the death of the internet. Needing to give your ID to access Spotify. Not being able to install software on the device you purchase.
and just like that google expands their walled garden and becomes apple 2
remember when the internet was an open platform and computers were yours to run programs you wanted?
It’s about to get even worse. With AI and deepfakes, including deepfake porn, it will become impossible to argue against the complete and total tracking of all access to compute for the general population. There will be literally no justifiable reason to “control your own computer”, when children could get hurt.
We had it coming… I do let my thoughts Go, that you Someehen need to identify yourself to even connect to the internet.
They didn’t apply laws to regulate some stuff, so now they start hammering down to enforce Control.
And big tech and companies will absolutely be one of the hardest Driver for this. There are Potential new ways to make Money. Basically a wet dream for especially big tech.
This is awful. One of my favorite differences between Android and iOS, as both a user AND developer is sideloading.
The closer google gets to apple, the more similar they become. Except apples shit generally all works well together. Knock off air tags, chromecast, audio groups, and so many other things are riddled with bugs and never fixed.
If you make android the same as iOS, I might as well switch.
Only reason I stick with Apple is because their stuff simply works and is supported (in most cases) for almost 10 years.
Sideloading still works, just the apps have to be signed. Still awfull.
How many great apps will we lose because of this, though?
What’s extra funny is that I already did all of this, and yet, I’ve been informed that my developer account is subject to deletion because I’m not active enough. Since my game does not get regular updates I said F this, let them delete my account. It’s still available for sideload on itch.io anyway. Jokes on me for believing that.
So yeah, it seems like Google is actively hostile towards building a library of software/games that just work and intentionally only wants live service garbage apps on their platform because those make more revenue.
That’s wild, I made a developer account in like 2010 and released an app and forgot about it. I still get developer emails about my account lol. I never touched it.
I’d say a big ton of them :(
Can Nintendo request Google revoke authorization for emulator developers? Or publishers requesting revoking any of the hugely popular manga aggregator apps. Or maybe they’ll just outright refuse them from the start, like they will with revanced.
I’m on your side and you are correct, besides Google amassing a ton of money (each registration costs $25) they will have total control and we know that Google is far beyond “not evil”.
none of those apps would receive authorization in this scenario. you would not be able to use them
I highly doubt they’ll sign Torrent clients.
(Yes I torrent on my phone, cuz why not lol :P)
Torrent clients are not illegal in any way. So why not?
Idk, apple doesn’t allow them on their app store.
Right sorry. I thought you meant developers won’t sign them. Obviously you mean Google.
I hope Google at least will only sign identities, e.g. you really are DeathByBigSad and this is your key which you can sign apps with. Not look at the apps themselves. That may be too much to hope for. :(
Torrent client is just an application, author shouldn’t be responsible - naive thinking I suppose
We just need to find a way to fake it, I guess anyone that wants to sideload has to root.
The only way to fake it would be to use a “public” signature, but then again, I’m sure google will revoke them eventually. I guess rooting won’t be enough, one would have to change some internal binaries. Perhaps it’s time for a ungooglified android OS 🤷♂️
Why am I using an Android device then? Also how would this even work with open source apps that people build from source?
You build an app from source, I assume you’ll get a prompt on your phone that says it can’t run because it’s not signed.
Another article did mention that it’s only for devices with Play Protect enabled so if they keep that as easy as it is to disable right now, it’ll be a non issue actually.
Until play protect becomes mandatory
I could see them making it a developer option, then force you to agree to giving up your warranty if you wanna turn on sideloading, and maybe even trigger a play intergrity thing that makes banking apps unusable.
I sure hope not, it’d mess up corporate deployments and all too.
Another article did mention that it’s only for devices with Play Protect enabled so if they keep that as easy as it is to disable right now, it’ll be a non issue actually.
There dies the last remaining reason to use Android.
You say that like there’s a better alternative
There’s iOS. It works great, but has no real sideloading. Android works meh, but had proper sideloading. Now Android will no longer have it, so you might as well bite the bullet on the OS with better hardware integration.
I’d argue it doesn’t “just work” any longer. I recently left iOS for Android, after 10 years with an iPhone. The keyboard was the first issue, the OS stalling and making the device heat up was another. The lack of actual smarts got a bit annoying, too. You ask Siri something and it goes down a k-hole.
I’ll probably end up on a Fairphone without any Google tripe, which is a shame, because I quite like my new OnePlus 13.
Apple is basically the default (at least in the US) so if Android cant offer significantly more theres not much reason to use it
iPhones are too expensive for some people. Not everyone has $500 lying around.
You can’t get an iPhone for $100, an unlocked Motorola phone is only about $100, if you get a carrier locked version its like $30-$40 (and you can carrier unlock them 60 days after activation, just get the cheapest 30 day plan will do, you don’t even need 60 days of service to get it unlocked.
Pricing wise, Android phones will still have advantages, even with google’s autocratization.
And use what instead?
Linux. The mobile ecosystem will have to mature fast though.
I don’t think it will. It hasn’t so far, despite there having been linux phones in the past, and it’s got the Windows Phone/Symbian problem where users don’t go to it because it lacks support for the apps they use, and developers don’t support it because it doesn’t have much by way of users.
That’s why we need to move to it - be the egg that becomes the first chicken.
Let’s hope, gaming on Linux has become so good I un installed windows completely…
I mean we do have the benefit of Waydroid on most Linux distros, so maybe it’ll be a Wine/proton situation where the new OS emulates Android apps in a separate container.
There are a few key issues with mobile Linux:
- UIs that have simply not gotten any attention
- A severe lack of decent hardware
- Scaled down desktop apps on a phone (seriously who thought this was a good idea)
- No security whatsoever
- Basic features missing or requiring a significant degree of tinkering to get working such as audio or calling
Didn’t realize the device in my pocket was google’s
“With software there are only two possibilities: either the users control the program or the program controls the users. If the program controls the users, and the developer controls the program, then the program is an instrument of unjust power.”
- Richard M. Stallman
linux phones please hurry!
Android is Linux…
This is about as useful as the assholes going “It’s not Pedophilia, it’s Hebephilia!”.
It’s so heavily derive so as to be effectively wrong. It’d be like calling a human a jawless fish sure it’s technically true but entirely misses the point.
oh what’s the problem then I wonder
gnu/linux user space phones please hurry!
Haha. Ha.
Hasn’t Apple been losing in court across the world for doing exactly this?
No, it’s nothing like what Apple’s been doing.
Apple has been losing in court about everyone needs to give them money anytime anything makes any money on iOS, or even thinking absolutely allowing others to install anything beyond their App Store.
This is Google demanding every app that can be installed on Android must be signed by them, and the only cost is registering with them your name and address, possibly verified by government ID. (And quite possible doxxing you at the same time as they already do on the Play Store…)
These are very different, and unlike Apple, will more likely be applauded by numerous world governments in the current “anything a child can even remotely even know about” must have its users be checked to make sure they are “allowed to”.
It really is past time we saw serious work on a mobile flavor of Linux. Not AOSP, not anything whatsoever downstream of Google, but a regular Linux distro with a mobile friendly DTE.
Isn’t that what Ubuntu Touch is?
Oh, I thought the project was dead. Apparently after Canonical dropped it, it was picked up by the community. Thanks, I’ll look into it. It might even be worth supporting.
I guess it’s time to switch to developing apps for Linux mobile distro
The only reason I like android is cuz I can make my own apks and use them without issue.
Fuck that’s actually really bad
In short, they make independent stores impossible?
Mostly; they just force themselves into the process for publishing each app and have an effective veto on apps. So yeah, no stores fully independent of Google.
… Didn’t the EU JUST fine Apple half a billion euros over the same thing?
They’re already starting to clamp down on sideloading. I use Aurora Store out of principle, but it’s getting more and more common that apps will refuse to launch if not downloaded from the Play Store. I get the risk of sideloading maliciously modified banking apps or whatever, but surely you could just compare a checksum or something?
