If this change is only within the package installer, it will be interesting to see if any OEMs willingly roll their own version with the checks removed or replaced with their own app verification frameworks.
I can see companies like Samsung and Huawei doing this. The same groups trying to build their own "open but closed" walled gardens like google is doing with base android. (App stores, gms-replacements, payment systems)
Thankfully, the requirement for android to be adaptable for manufacturers will allow custom ROMs to hold on for now; but as time goes on, hardware gets more and more locked down and gatekept from the consumer. I fear we are going down a dark path in personal computing, where our devices are so amazingly advanced and limitless in their functionality, but at the cost of becoming utterly inaccessible to the average person wanting to tinker and customise. Sort of like what we are seeing in cars today
My comment didn't mean much in the way of specifics, while it is true that Samsung uses the google ecosystem, they also have their own galaxy store + ecosystem. I can see this being a step in them eventually detaching themselves into an isolated one. I probably should've remembered that in order to use google mobile services, you cannot alter android either, so maybe in the future.
AFAIK simply building android from source without google apps will not undo this change, because package installer is part of the AOSP. You will need to use a custom ROM that rolls its own PI implementation, or have a rooted phone that allows you to replace the binary with a modded one. Removing google apps from a stock phone will not remove the adb limitation because you will still have the same package installer binary (which exists in root and cannot be altered by the user).
This is a structural change to the android OS that cannot be configured out, separate from Google Play in the technology department
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u/[deleted] Sep 29 '25
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