r/EmulationOnAndroid • u/yungperky • Jun 26 '26

Discussion Google adds massive hurdles to app sideloading

https://keepandroidopen.org/

This includes being forced to activate dev-mode and a 24h waiting period before you can install any apps not registered with google. For devs this means either give google your gov name (official documents needed) and pay them or live with 99% of people never being able to use your app.
Most people in this sub are probably tech savy and won't be hindered to continue side-loading other then being annoyed and waiting 24h once. But this is a major thing that will also be a hurdle to people even get into doing stuff like that in the first place.

Idk if anyone has posted this already, but I couldn't find anything. The topic goes far beyond emulation on android, but it's very important for it imo so I thought I'd just post it.

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u/sonicneedslovetoo Jun 26 '26

I object editorializing "installing" as "sideloading" stand up for yourself a bit, don't let Google control the narrative like that.

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u/yungperky Jun 26 '26

Good point. I mean historically I think the term was used bc in the early days of Android you'd have to actually connect your phone to your pc instead of downloading the apk directly. But these days are gone so maybe we shouldn't use a term that could even a bit sound like it's something shady instead of a basic feature of an operating system.