On the one hand. I don’t like this, since I install apps off of Google Play all the time. This is beyond stupid and I hope OEMs doesn’t include it.
On the other hand I just helped a colleague try to get a cheap fitness tracker to work on her phone and the manual took her to a random website for the required app. Thankfully the link was dead but even after I said “I don’t trust this link” she proceeded to try and download it twice.
For her I hope this is enabled by default and scares her from disabling it since I feel she will have her banking details stolen if she is left to her own devices.
If you buy sleazy-ass hardware just because it’s cheap you already made a grave mistake. I would not trust their app/drivers even if they were listed on a legit app store.
That was my thought too. But when you can’t stop another inertia the best you can do is make sure they do it as safely as possible.
Calling installing applications on your own hardware “Sideloading” really grinds my gears. Ugh.
I know Google was lost a long time ago, but it’s a bit sad to see Android go down this path. Was good for the twenty or so years it lasted. Miss my HTC.
Way back in the day when it was introduced, I had no idea what they meant with sideloading. Then when I understood that it was installing software, I thought that there had to be some form of special process or something like that, because it had such a strange name…
Then I figured out it’s just a ploy so that people don’t get any ideas about their phone actually being theirs, and that it’s just installing software as far as they allow you to, on your own fucking device.
It’s all about control, yet again
Fuck these fucktards.
It’s called installing, not sideloading.
You don’t sideload an app on your PC, you install it. The language they’re using is specifically to demonize a normal function of a phone, so they can take control.
You don’t “sideload” an app on your PC, YET. They would very much like to limit your use of your own PC too.
Microsoft has to get money from its Windows monopoly somehow.
You basically do already. Most cheaper PCs come with S mode enabled from the store. Turning it off requires accepting a scary disclaimer that it’s a permanent change and you’re likely to fuck up your computer.
I have to be honest though, I kinda like it for older relatives that I can’t convince to switch to Linux. Prevents tech support calls to me. And if Android was setup the same way with a one time prompt, I’d be perfectly happy.
Sideloading is just a normal term for a specific kind of installing, different than the default method of using the preinstalled store app. Practically nobody actually installs applications on phones from outside those stores. It’s a useful and meaningful distinction, and much shorter than saying “installing apps by means other than official stores”. You don’t “sideload” an app on your PC because that distinction is useless, as it’s the default approach anyway.
In fact, the term itself has existed since like the 90s, and has just been adopted for use with smartphones.
The guardian project, f-droid, aurora store, etc etc would disagree with your statement that nobody installs outside of the playstore. GrapheneOS, /E/OS etc don’t even have playstore as a default store, you choose to install the playstore if you want Google in your life
I didn’t say “nobody”, I said “practically nobody”, and that’s exactly the amount of users of those OSes/stores. Out of ≈7B smartphone users, even being giga-generous, maybe ≈1M use them (realistically, it’s a fraction of that). That’s ≈0.014%, about the same ratio of people getting struck by lightning annually, or, you know, practically nobody.
Source for the number of users@ also aurora is a replacement store, google would still call it sideloading to scare users even if the install mechanism is store based
There’s no “default” way to install Sherlock Holmes, installing is a “what” not a “how”
how tf do i block this if i’m using say fdroid
I have a few years old Pinephone in a drawer I never really got around to using, because back then the state of phone Linux easn’t really usable. Failed calls, issues with battery life and the like.
Does anyone knows if it got better?
Actually they’re ending their production. Here’s an alternative, Mecha Comet
Why is everyone so upset about the term sideloading. It’s not “denormalizing”, the “normal” way for your average joe is using the app store. Y’all need to take a step back and be aware that the average lemmy user is by far more tech savvy than your average smartphone user. And of course it’s not a term used in the context of windows or Linux, because the normal way there simply allows installations.
If Google does that as they describe they do - an additional layer, that I can disable in some settings, if I want to, why are we upset about that? It does help protect users that are not aware of what the consequences may be.
And of course Google wants to maximize device control. Just as Apple. And Microsoft. And any other company. You want full control over your device, use the according software for that.
If we hadn’t let them call it sideloading for so long it would be easier to have the conversation about the implications with less savvy people more easily.
We’re upset about it because Google is attempting to change the norm in an authoritarian, self-serving way. It’s a war on general-purpose computing, and “average smartphone users” – especially ones who don’t also have a PC to understand what they’re missing – are victims of it.
The term is anti-property-rights propaganda.
Google has never been doing anything else. How is showing yet another popup a war on general-purpose computing? All they are interested in is their profit and market share. You always will be able to install external APKs, worst case using adb. And the more they’ll lock it down, the more workarounds, jailbreaks and tools will pop up.
Literally every company is doing the same, from your smart TV to your smart fridge. Further restrictions on external installations (as in non-PlayStore) is at least something that arguably brings some benefit to some users, given the current state of cyber security.
“Anti-property-rights propaganda” is a very big term in the context of the sideloading change, when you should assume that your device might get fully and remotely bricked anytime when Trump or one of his cultists finally loses his shit and orders a cease of operations e.g. in Europe to put pressure down.
Anyone who is concerned about Google’s ethics has moved to another ROM where Google can’t do shit. Others don’t care, and keep using it as-is. And that’s all there is, like it or not, move on or don’t, but yapping about propaganda for a term preceding the play store by about 20 years is not doing anything.
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Shatter.
Roll 3d8 thunder damage. All Android phones within 10 ft have to make a constitution saving throw; what’s your spell casting DC?
Not buying applications from monopoly markets isn’t side-loading. Teach your friends & family about the pathetic semantic games they play. Your device - your rules! Stop worrying about warranty & all this would make sense.
I can’t root my current phone, but its over month out of date. I’m pretty dependent on a number of currently ‘sideloaded’ apps, what should I expect really? Also phone recommendations for US are appreciated, maybe not google hardware but I may try the graphene route… before I just switch to a pager and MP3 player maybe
E: reading through some more on this, it doesnt sound like the worst. I’m sure this will inevitibly be used regionally on some basis initially then expand. But it is pretty frictionless for some scam app to be downloaded and trick say my grandpa into installing some real shoddy adware+whatever else… that was fun to deal with. But also to act like google play store doesn’t already have absolute muck is a joke
It’s not side-loading, ffs! They are making it difficult to install apps on your own hardware. Stop calling it “side-loading”. What the fuck is sideloading anyway? It’s some crApple-specific thing.
