Post

Chris Ward
@chrisward.de

To be clear, this article headline is deeply misleading. The real headline: Google is banning sideloading on Android. It's anti-competition, deeply intrusive, and extremely dangerous to those in countries with totalitarian regimes (which Google typically bends a knee to).

Chris Ward@chrisward.de

This is a horrifically bad idea and it has absolutely nothing to do with security. android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/08/elev...

android-developers.googleblog.comA new layer of security for certified Android devicesStarting in 2026 and in select countries first, Android apps must be registered to a verified developer in order to be installed.

7 reposts16 likes

Lord Harry
@lordharry.bsky.social

More and more phones have locked bootloaders so you can't install lineageos or /e/OS instead. The future is a world where we don't control our own devices. And hardly anyone cares.

Orbit
@o4bit.dev

This is the hard reality that is currently happening which is just insane to me how bad consumer rights have gotten. But I guess money talks.

Chris Ward
@chrisward.de

In order to sideload currently you have to specifically change a setting to allow it. It is not simple for the average user. They can't accidentally install an APK. Again, this has nothing to do with security.

Maxim M
@this-username.bsky.social

When we developed EU Wallet prototype in my company, I only thought about good use-cases(there are a lot). But I should have known that EU would try to use it in some dystopian way 🥲