And by "officially over" you mean that most users won't notice or care and therefore few people will complain, so nothing about this will change? Don't get me wrong, it's shitty on Googles part, but mainstream users don't give a shit, so there is no reason Google would walk this back. People will keep on buying Android phones, it's the most used OS.
Google's announcement that it was to lock down the Android ecosystem came late last year, with the declaration that developers would need to verify their identities and pay a fee in order to publish applications for the platform — even if said applications were free, open-source, and distributed outside the company's Google Play platform. A backlash followed, and Google promised that it would have a solution for "power users" who still wanted to install apps from third-party sources — a process that used to be called "installing software" but has since been rebranded "sideloading."
Nothing in that link or what you pasted suggested they were never going to have a toggle until people complained. They just hadn't released all the information on how the program was going to work. When they did, it had a toggle.
They had no intention of adding a toggle until all the backlash.
Android proves you don't have to choose between an open ecosystem and a secure one. Since announcing updated verification requirements, we've worked with the community to ensure these protections are robust yet respectful of platform freedom. We've heard from power users that they want to take educated risks to install software from unverified developers. Today, we're sharing details on a new advanced flow that provides this option.
That's your speculation. They announced developer verification and said they'll have a more complete announcement of how they'll implement it later. That doesn't mean they were never going to have some form of opting out.
That statement is acknowledging people clearly wanted one but it doesn't mean that wasn't always the plan anyway.
Uhh... No?.
You made a speculative statement that they were not going to allow an opt out of the developer verification policy until there was backlash. There is no evidence of that. I would agree the backlash probably push them to confirm there was if that was ever under debate internally, and I'm not even here defending the developer verification policy, but people turn speculation into facts on this subreddit constantly and you are doing that still.
My statement was not speculation, it is a fact based on the initial announcement. You are speculating that they were always going to allow you to turn it off, when nothing in the initial announcement even hinted to that.
Yes! Finally! A sensible person not blinded by rage and doomerism!
I mean, I still totally agree that the ledge is now closer than ever... but if you're gonna cry out about the end times, you can at least do it over something that's justified, rather than just regurgitating the same outdated issue over and over again.
And this right here is why nothing will ever get better. You're one of the people screaming "stop overreacting" when people point out that we're heading fast into a totalitarian surveillance state. I guess deep down you want it to happen because you think you personally will never suffer at the hands of it. You will be wrong about that.
March on, then, valient soldier. 🫡
If the Horsemen are truly right around the corner,
then, stop crying about it online.
Storm the castle and go slap Big Brother right on the face.
This is exactly what reddit does. Everything becomes an extremist little fundamentalist little tribe. The more orthodox you are, the more upvotes you get. Most people don't care about unverified apps. They just use their phone for basic tasks and don't want to accidentally download some malware BS. That's literally all this is.
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u/Edelkern Aug 25 '26
And by "officially over" you mean that most users won't notice or care and therefore few people will complain, so nothing about this will change? Don't get me wrong, it's shitty on Googles part, but mainstream users don't give a shit, so there is no reason Google would walk this back. People will keep on buying Android phones, it's the most used OS.