No. This will conflict with EU laws.
this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
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Yup! Sideloading is legally required to be available by the EU Digital Markets Act by March 2024. Both Apple and Android must comply!
Does apple comply? Just asking as I do not have an iphone and was under the impression its not possible.
It is rumored that Apple will allow sideloading in the EU in the next big iOS update.
The las was recently paseo, shock be followed by march 2024
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Ahh, so the only thing saving us from a corporate dominated future is laws...
Well I'm an American, I'm sure if they wanted, they could always make a EU version and US version. I'm a bit worried for the future.
Edit: Spelling
Android is open source, and there are many forks of it already. If they were to try this, those of us who care would just run a fork of Android.
Assuming that there will be phones with unlockable bootloaders sold in the US in the future. There are precious few of them now. Importing's always an option (and quite easy these days), but then you run into the problem of band support.
But the vast majority won't, and that's an issue.
Burning a new ROM is just as hard fora regular user as jailbreaking an iPhone, so practically it doesn’t make a difference if android is open-source or not.
Also, even though core android is OSS, what you and i run on our phones heavily depends on the play framework which is Google proprietary. Amazon has tried and failed to fork android before with its fire devices and that hasn’t worked.
FYI GrapheneOS is trivial to install (you don't need to do all that exploit and root nonsense you used to have to!) and runs entirely without Google Play Services (unless you want to install them in a less-invasive way, which is also officially supported)
Thanks, bug. It’s gotten better for those of us with some background, but I’d definitely not say it’s trivial for a regular android user to use. GrapheneOS only supports Google Pixels launched after August 2020 for starters. The recommended easy way to install GrapheneOS still needs you to OEM unlock and may need a factory reset as well. Jailbreaking might technically be harder, but this is hard enough.
The only way something like this can become mainstream is if popular smartphone manufacturers intentionally supported an alternative distribution (like GrapheneOS), which i don’t see happening for business reasons including the possibility of a fallout with Google.
Even though android is open-source, the hurdles for running an alternative are around the proprietary stuff we depend on in the ecosystem.
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EU laws (btw, afaik, India has similar requirement now) is one of the reasons which will make disabling alternative installation option very complicated if Google would want to.
I do not think it will want to do this, though.
I love the EU.
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For "official" Android products, maybe eventually.
In fact I can see a future where all computing/devices are locked down and become appliances, much like your tv or fridge.
You use them how you're "meant to". Sideloading? Programming? Tweaking? Why do you need to do that, are you a terrorist?
I hope we don't get to that world, but for a while now I've been thinking it looks like a possible outcome.
a future where all computing/devices are locked down
And who would mandate and control such a requirement? And how would it be enforced? And why?
The only reason Apple is locked down as it is, is that Apple as the only manufacturer has absolute control over architecture, hardware and software.
Being open will always be a unique selling point by at least some competing companies, so there will continue to be some, absent a dictatorship rigorously controlling the manufacture and sale of such devices. But I think not even China has managed to accomplish that. Open devices are an absolute necessity if you want research and technological progress. And if the industry needs it, some of it will inevitably become available to citizens, too.
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Nope, Android itself is not restrictive, it's the extra add-ons by vendors that cause restrictions.
This is it.
I switched to Pixel phones ordered from Google. I can replace the software with whatever and not worry about breaking an eFuse warranty.
If they are going to restrict sideloading, they'll probably restrict bootloader unlocking too. In the future, just make sure you research the bootloader unlockablility before buying a phone, because the next pixel might be locked.
It's cellular providers who restrict bootloader locking generally. But you're right but that would go against the grain as the Pixel series are designed to be the flagship for AOSP
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AOSP at the very least, but the average consumer doesn't really care much about Google Play Services or their Mainland China substitutes (obv cos great firewall).
As long as Android remains open-source, someone will always provide an alternative version if Google restricts the "official" OS
What other phones besides pixel, has an open boot loader?
I know at least some Xiaomi phones do. At least both of the ones I've had in the past were pretty painless to flash.
Good question. I believe OnePlus (or at least they used to), but I'm not sure.
I am using an OnePlus 8T and can confirm that, even if the bootloader does not come unlocked by default, it is very easy to unlock and flash and can also very easily go back (backup is needed because locking back will wipe the phone). Done myself.
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I was surprised when some recent Android introduced the option for non-GPlay apps to auto-update on the background.
Maybe it's just so that Google can avoid be called a monopoly, same with their support of Firefox.
EU also has some regulations in mind to force these vendors to allow installation of other apps, so we'll see.
No. Because if your write Software for Android you rely on the Android Debug Bridge (in short ADB). So it is an necessary part for debugging your Software. And ADB always allows installing New Software.
There will always be a fork of AOSP even if google ditches it the community will keep it up.
It won't be possible since even Apple is considering the possibility of sideloading apps because of EU's competition policy legislation. If Google does the same, i guess they'll just take a pretty good fine again
I don't think so, since that is one of the factors that makes Android "unique" as a mobile operating system since it gives you the freedom to install the app you want, it is in the official store or not
(sorry for my English)
I used to root my Android phones. Then I stopped because all banking apps were disallowing launch if your phone was detected as having root.
People complain about this as if it's some sort of massive roadblock that nobody's solved yet.
Magisk Hide handles this and has been around for years. Venture around on the relevant XDA forum and SEARCH
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Rooting your phone and unlocking the bootloader are separate (and mostly independent) things. E.g., by default, LineageOS is not rooted, but it requires an unlocked bootloader to install. Now, rooting without an unlocked bootloader is harder.
yeah i wish there was a reliable way to fix this, last time i checked there werent any. also those apps didnt even show up in play store (ex.: revolut)
I'm using revolut on a rooted device, no issues on 3 banking apps. Google Pay can be a hit or miss though, had it working a month ago but now it fails.
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I think this is Google's long-term plan.
If you're talking about things like Google deprecating the two apps, then yes such things will continue. Google is slowly starting to sink (for whatever reason), and they are trying their hand at YouTube advertisements and Android.
But the source of Android is FOSS, and whilst Google does make up majority of the development efforts, if they were to close-source everything they would be causing massive ripples through the tech industry. I'm sure Samsung is going to try their (admittedly, very expensive) hand in court too if Google takes such a lick. So will Huawei and Xiaomi in the Chinese courts. Not to mention that Google benefits from the patches provided to Android from the FOSS community.
I don't think it's going to happen soon, if it does.
Actually you may not be too far off. Noticed recently that users don't have access to their Android>OBB or Data folders anymore through the normal files app. I know there is a workaround but I haven't been able to get it to work. This may not affect downloading/installing apk's from other sources, but if you have to manually install the OBB/Data you cannot do that.
Um I still can. You use a file explorer app (I use an app called ZArchiver) and find the directory, tap on it and there is a pop up telling you to grant it permission, then you will need to locate it using a android system file explorer, and once you find it, you can grant permission to access the directory to the app. I know its hard to describe using words, but I can record my screen and show it to you.
Edit: In android 13 the data and obb diectory aren't actually restricted to third party file explorers, only the sub-directories, like the files used by an app (those directories starting with "com.") are resteicted and you need to manually grant permission using the method I said. I can access data and obb just fine using ZArchiver.
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As others have stated, it will be illegal in the EU if that were to happen. However, it would probably cause issues with phone makers as well since they probably wouldn't be able to properly fork Android and slap their skins on top like ColorOS or Samsung's skin.
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