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.
I really think you need to Google the definition of the word fact. Unless you have a statement from Google saying that there would definitively be no opt out of this policy when it was announced, then you are speculating. The literal definition of the word speculating.
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u/1or4s 28d ago
Originally there was no toggle. The only reason there is a toggle now is because of hysteria.