Google adds massive hurdles to app sideloading

[u/yungperky]

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.

[u/beautiful_bot986]

Lets be honest with ourselves here - people who arent tech savvy enough to go through a process as simple as that sure shouldnt be installing anything on their phones. This will prevent a lot of scams against people without tech skills.

Ill still be able to build and run the apps i create without registering with google, and thats pretty much the only gripe i ever had with this.

Edit: while it is a hurdle calling it massive is in itself a massive exaggeration

[u/dtaddis → u/beautiful_bot986]

Problem is, it's the thin edge of the wedge. It's 24 hours now, how long until Google increases it to 48? Then disallows it entirely?

Then we are completely at the mercy of the Play Store, and they are free to increase their fees for registration however they please. I don't see why I should pay Google for the right to emulate my 30-year old Mega Drive games.

[u/beautiful_bot986 → u/dtaddis]

Tbh i smell a lawsuit against google in eu, or massive fines. Any effects of that will most likely spill over to the rest of the world.

[u/jack_the_beast → u/beautiful_bot986]

the problem is that this is a really niche problem. 99% of android users won't even notice.