Don't worry guys, you can still sideload!

[Vixi]

https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/09/lets-talk-security-answering-your-top.html
Yeah, that doesn't help at all.

Android is supposed to be an open platform. Why should I have to hand personal information to google just to offer software outside their store.

Also, wtf is sideloading? I think they mean installing a program you acquired on your device that you own.

 

[Latiodile]

sideloading is and has been a very common term for sourcing your own APK for manual installation, it's been around for many many years

 

[Vixi]

sideloading is and has been a very common term for sourcing your own APK for manual installation, it's been around for many many years

Sounds like a term intended to stigmatize installing from a file like you usually do with computers.

 

[BigOnYa]

If Google / Apple/ Amazon app stores don't offer or allow installing of a certain app, then you "side-load" it on to your device, been this way for many years.

 

[Latiodile]

Sounds like a term intended to stigmatize installing from a file like you usually do with computers.

afaik it's a user term, not a corpo term meant to stigmatize

 

[Vixi]

afaik it's a user term, not a corpo term meant to stigmatize

It sounds like something only hackermen with dev mode enabled do with their phones. Not for normies (who are used to installing programs the exact same way on windows)

 

[Latiodile]

It sounds like something only hackermen with dev mode enabled do with their phones. Not for normies (who are used to installing programs the exact same way on windows)

or... general advanced users that want older versions of apps or things that aren't on google play?
android has always been more prosumer focused than IOS, even back in the android 2.x days when sideloading really first started

 

[Vixi]

or... general advanced users that want older versions of apps or things that aren't on google play?
android has always been more prosumer focused than IOS, even back in the android 2.x days when sideloading really first started

I got my dad to download a more reliable and more secure app to do something he uses his phone for from the developer's APK because it's free there but costs $10USD on google play.

He got uncomfortable and backed out.

My brother had no trouble getting him to replace Internet Explorer on Windows with Google Chrome.

"sideloading" is a stigma.

 

[Deleted member 702243]

It sounds like something only hackermen with dev mode enabled do with their phones. Not for normies (who are used to installing programs the exact same way on windows)

yeah and this is a part of why desktop is a security nightmare

 

[aoimatsuri]

For as long as Sam Suuung still allows Bootloader unlock and LineageOS is still made for Drawing (read EMR enabled tablets):
I don't care

Otherwise:
Good thing I only develop webapps

Can't easily touch JS n PHP google

 

[Vixi]

yeah and this is a part of why desktop is a security nightmare

So is Google Play store with all the Malware that makes it on there.

 

[Xdqwerty]

so basically nothing will change?

 

[CMDreamer]

Instead of worrying about sideloading apps on my phone, they should really care about malware apps that still are being offered and sold on their playstore. Which doesn't seem like a pro-consumer move at all, charging $$$ for malware.

Android is starting to become as crappy as iOS, I'm seriously considering HarmonyOS as an alternative.

 

[kevin corms]

https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/09/lets-talk-security-answering-your-top.html
Yeah, that doesn't help at all.

Android is supposed to be an open platform. Why should I have to hand personal information to google just to offer software outside their store.

Also, wtf is sideloading? I think they mean installing a program you acquired on your device that you own.

Don't confuse marketing with what something is supposed to be. They sort of had to make things open source to get going because google bought android and it uses a ton of open source code.

Post automatically merged: Oct 4, 2025

Instead of worrying about sideloading apps on my phone, they should really care about malware apps that still are being offered and sold on their playstore. Which doesn't seem like a pro-consumer move at all, charging $$$ for malware.

Android is starting to become as crappy as iOS, I'm seriously considering HarmonyOS as an alternative.

It's always been worse than iOS, allowing side loading and letting people mess with the ui doesn't make an os good. Its actually kind of odd that google was able to convince people that these things matter more than actually running apps well, you know the things we actually use our phones for.

 

[spectral]

I got my dad to download a more reliable and more secure app to do something he uses his phone for from the developer's APK because it's free there but costs $10USD on google play.

He got uncomfortable and backed out.

My brother had no trouble getting him to replace Internet Explorer on Windows with Google Chrome.

"sideloading" is a stigma.

No it isn't. You were just ignorant of it, looked silly and are now trying to double down.

 

[Vixi]

No it isn't. You were just ignorant of it, looked silly and are now trying to double down.

It is to people who can't count in hexadecimal.

 

[Deleted member 705600]

It is to people who can't count in hexadecimal.

Tell me you have never being on the Android modding scene without telling me you have never being on the Android modding scene.

This ain't super technical stuff man, this is something you will find as a common term in most places, like XDA
Here, look, one of the first results of the search "installing APKs":
https://www.xda-developers.com/how-to-sideload-install-android-app-apk/

You just aren't in it, which is fine, but don't go around saying weird conspiracies, you look silly

 

[Vixi]

Tell me you have never being on the Android modding scene without telling me you have never being on the Android modding scene.

This ain't super technical stuff man, this is something you will find as a common term in most places, like XDA
Here, look, one of the first results of the search "installing APKs":
https://www.xda-developers.com/how-to-sideload-install-android-app-apk/

You just aren't in it, which is fine, but don't go around saying weird conspiracies, you look silly

I've barely scraped the Android modding scene, but a lot more than people who feel uncomfortable "sideloading" on their device.

 

[spectral]

It is to people who can't count in hexadecimal.

It's literally just a name for installing something from outside of the device eco-system and has been for a long long time. Its no more daunting than installing an exe on windows, people do it all the time. There is no advanced tech knowledge in play. You're just woefully uninformed mouthing off in ignorance

 

[Vixi]

It's literally just a name for installing something from outside of the device eco-system and has been for a long long time. Its no more daunting than installing an exe on windows, people do it all the time. There is no advanced tech knowledge in play. You're just woefully uninformed mouthing off in ignorance

People in GBATemp and XDA forums do it all the time. If you tell the average non tech savy person to sideload they get nervous about it

What it is is installing an application like people have always done. No need to make it sound weird.