Making users wait 24 hours doesn't improve security; it's an anti-competitive change designed to make the Google Play store seem like less of a hassle in comparison.
I can actually see where it can improve security against scammers trying to scam elderly and non-tech savvy people.
For the rest of us that know our way around Android, it's just a one time annoyance, after completing all the steps to enable sideloading, you won't have to wait 24 hours anymore.
Lets be real though, currently they already have to blow through 4 other warnings about installing unsigned APK and enabled the browser or file manager to be able to install applications. It's almost certain if they are that far deep/commited, they are going to call the scammer back if the scammer left a number.
Yes this might allow for a time delay where the scammers number could be disabled if reported by enough people, or someone else to be like "yo this is a scam" if they mentioned it but, I don't think this is as secure as they are saying it will be. The target audience for this is very unlikely to be thwarted by a time delay. Plus, the scammer will make some excuse about how the warning is just a safety percaucion and doesn't need to be followed as this is a normal usage of the toggle, and then have them call back after the delay is done.
For clarification: the target audience doesn't know about the scam, and all they care about is that someone is seemingly willing to assist with an issue or problem they have. Said person knows the solution and they just have to wait for the timer to be done to be able to do said solution. They have no reason of telling others about it (unless they were complaining about googles time delay) as they already got someone who is seemingly able to assist.
Honestly, having to have the user type "I agree that I have verified the application i am trying to install is genuine and not a fraudulent app" or a listbox of checkmarks to toggle in order to enable it would be far more efficient for this case.
Hell take the example image the article on the dev page has and make it into toggles instead and it would work far better than a timer does.
It’s going to be effective, but it’s a sad world where you have to create a total nanny state because there exist a subset of users who are INCREDIBLY stupid.
Is it still a subset when it's the majority?
And to be honest, the level of effort scammers are willing to go through is shocking, and AI's just making it easier for them.
Solution in search of a problem?
I have never seen a scam call involving sideloading an app on a phone... Why would they whenTeamViwer is in the Google app store?
I'd believe that if most Pig Butchering scams weren't using apps from Google Play already.
No we didn't win. This is Google making it harder to install the programs you want, rather than the programs Google wants you to have.
Microsoft appeared to walk back Recall until they suddenly brought it back unannounced and doubled down. So I'll believe it when I see it
Yeah corpos don't respect consumers or norms of human dignity, they'll just do what they want more quietly if you complain. The only real solution is to break up monopolies (ideally for the last several decades).
So, we will have to enable developer mode for that? How long before banking and government apps refuse to run if you have "sideloaded" apps installed? This will be the same as not allowing the majority of people to sideload. No win in here, just an advanced strategy from google to make us conform
This is already the case if the developer mode toggle is enabled for some. I have to turn it off any time I'm traveling for work because the app we have to use to file expense reports refuses to run with developer mode enabled.
At that point you should tell your work to get a work only device for you... I always refuse to use my phone for work shit. I used to explain to them why, now I just lie and say my device is too old to have anything installed on it.
You should NEVER be using work apps on a personal device. EVER.
I totally agree.
I am so tired of this "slow boil", bs.
Of course we didn't win. the more hoops you have to jump through, the fewer people who will install their own apps and then you lose all of the community support. And Google didn't promise not to change their plans in the future. So you know that they'll promise this now. Maybe they'll backtrack a little if they have to and they will try to ratchet things up six months later anyway.
Real solutions involve either breaking up monopolies or breaking up monopolies, which is why some of the other cell phone vendors' actions recently look positive. If there are two versions of Android that are popularly used, then the banks will have to support both of them and then everyone can run away from Google whenever they feel like it. But if there's only one popular version and Android itself gets more and more locked down then that is Google seizing the entire market and they will cut out all of the other cell phone manufacturers as soon as they can. that will be just as bad as Apple.
It is always like this. Make a very anti consumer decision that everyone hates, then tone it down so the half of those people will say “we won”. This is a loss.
So fucking glad that GrapheneOS will probably be available for the new Motorola phones next year. I've been on pixels since they were Nexus, and if not for GrapheneOS, I would have jumped ship after the Pixel 4 and moved to Crapple.
We will win when nobody can tell you what you can or can’t put in your own fucking device.
""""sideloading"""", oh look who cant say installing software
"Sideloading" is the "jaywalking" of the mobile space
I'm writing an app that I will distribute only through f-droid. The people I would like to share it with are typical, non-technical android users. Before those changes I could just send them a link to f-droid apk and explain it's just another app store or send a link to the apk directly and probably most of them would be able to install it. Now I would have to tell them to do all those weird things first, things that look suspicious and that they would not understand the purpose of. I don't think anyone will be wiling to do it. This is not a win. The effect will be exactly the same - serious limits on distributing apps though alternative channels.
I do not consider this a win, and I will continue applying pressure where I can.
My galaxy will let me install but then I get this when I try to run the app:
Christ
Disable Google Play Protect. It's a scam that doesn't protect you at all, it just gives more control to Google.
I kind of wish they hadn’t. Fully blocking these apps would’ve really lit a fire in the open source world to create a serious alternative. Now people will just put up with the 1 day wait and carry on.
This isn't a win, this is Google making things shitty for the benefit of no one but themselves.
A classic case of making a ridiculously restrictive change, then "walking it back" to a merely semi-ridiculous change and having everyone sigh in relief.
It’s not side loading. It’s installing software on the device you probably paid multiple thousands for that you no longer own.
no.
i'll look into this, but they seem to have used the old strategy of announcing something absurd then back down to what they wanted because of "community pressure"
bonus for not looking bad in comparison, while still being bad.
"side loading" == installing
Yes. It is the same thing. Google is just trying to gaslight people.
Still worse than it was before. There's no win in that
To call the install of apps of your choice as «sideloading», means that they have won.
with a 24 hour delay guarunteed to punish anyone who wants to have their device their way.
Can someone please come out with a phone that's an actual computer and help stop this nonsense?
Phones cost a lot of money at this point and I'm completely sick of them being some locked down, surveillance ridden pile of crap. A reasonably built one would be able to replace a laptop at this point if it weren't for these artificial constraints imposed by the stupid fucking suits running things.
There, exacly what you want.
Here's a more budget one.
GPD has been making "mini laptops" for a long while, now they try to make similar gaming handheld.
I'm not sponoered nor I've bought this for myself. (yet)
the win in this is that many people realise how locked google has made android and how blatantly and arbitrarily google exerts their control over it. hopefully that will be input to some consumer decision (when sailfish becomes an alternative) and a tiny bit more people will consider their choice when getting a new phone. and maybe it also helps some regulation to be agreed (in europe, obviously).
Time for another OS. Android is over.
Then make the wait period a week, a month. Have this privilege expire every so often etc.
Try to pull warranty shenanigans if you ever went through the process.
Narrator: No, they did not, in fact, win.
If antitrust was being enforced, Google execs wouldn't even dream of attempting this bullshit.
Antitrust regulation is probably the easiest way to fix the biggest problems in our society, it is 100% bipartisan, and it is easy to explain to the average US voter. The only group that is against it is the billionaires/ultra wealthy. Instead, politicians are all hyperfocused on culture war mudslinging and bullshit that makes no difference.
Break up Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta (just to start), and watch how the tech industry explodes with innovation again, and the tech billionaire becomes an endangered species. The AI bubble will burst as companies actually need to compete to survive, and thus won't be burning as much resources on crap that clearly doesn't work.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
