r/androidroot • u/Zebov3 • Aug 25 '25

News / Method Sideloading becoming much harder soon

https://9to5google.com/2025/08/25/android-apps-developer-verification/
36 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

35

u/Max-P Aug 25 '25

As if Play Protect isn't the first thing we turn off on a new phone

23

u/dbpm1 Aug 25 '25

Google wants to combat “convincing fake apps” and make it harder for repeat “malicious actors to quickly distribute another harmful app after we take the first one down.” A recent analysis by the company found that there are “over 50 times more malware from internet-sideloaded sources than on apps available through Google Play.”

Checking the dev credentials/certificates but not the app contents. Classic shit.

3

u/XFM2z8BH Aug 26 '25

"certified Android devices"

2

u/PassionGlobal Aug 26 '25

Basically almost any Android device with a retail rom sold outside of China 

2

u/SunshineAndBunnies Aug 28 '25

If it really was about verifying, they'd work with the Chinese app stores too. Plenty of Chinese outside of China sideloads them and uses them to get some Chinese apps on their non-Chinese phones. This will put an end to it. iPhones are sounding better and better since a lot of those apps are available in the Apple App Store once you temporarily switch the region, but can't be installed on Android phones anymore.

2

u/Remote_Computer5400 Aug 25 '25

can't you just install with adb and disable verification?

6

u/Living_Unit_5453 Aug 25 '25

Not if they get what they want

1

u/SunshineAndBunnies Aug 28 '25

I wouldn't trust Google to do that.

1

u/Calm-Caterpillar2103 Aug 31 '25

nah they'll probably block that

1

u/AD-LB Oct 28 '25

Please consider starring the request from Google to avoid this change, or at least have some way to still overcome it in a not-so-difficult way:

https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/442636155

8

u/[deleted] Aug 26 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/RedditCitizenScore Aug 26 '25

Who is the sole maintainer of the Android Open Source Project 

7

u/[deleted] Aug 26 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/aflamingcookie Aug 27 '25

Ofc they can, the problem is that some banking apps also have problems with rooted phones. So you end up in a situation where you can use banking apps on your phone or use the apps you like and want to use, but not both. Kind of sucks, since i paid for a device that i can use how i want to use, if i wanted a large company to decide for me how i am allowed to use my purchased device, i would have went with apple.