Google will block sideloading of unverified Android apps starting next year
Google will block sideloading of unverified Android apps starting next year
arstechnica.com
Google will block sideloading of unverified Android apps starting next year
199 comments
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Two things especially worth noting from the article.
If you have a non-Google build of Android on your phone, none of this applies.
This means that at least GrapheneOS will be unaffected for now. Other ROMs without gapps will be unaffected only as long as you don't install gapps. Since Graphene has a sandbox for them, I'm assuming it'll be fine. That is, unless Google decides to lock the bootloader entirely.
In September 2026, Google plans to launch this feature in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. The next step is still hazy, but Google is targeting 2027 to expand the verification requirements globally.
So most users worldwide still have at least 1.5 years until it's implemented. Plenty of time to get a Pixel and install Graphene on it. Or to figure out some other plan.
Don't get me wrong - this is insane, unreasonable and horrible news for everyone. We should push back as hard as physically possible against it. However, at the very least we still have some time to figure things out before the policy rolls out.
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I wouldn't be surprised if Google stop allowing BL unlocking soon... Following Samsung and Xiaomi (although Xiaomi technically can be unlocked, in reality you'll not be able to do so nowadays unless you pay someone to do it via remote USB shit for you)
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I'm getting Huawei
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Literally just as bad lol
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Ok this needs harsh pushback, because phones are affordable, computers are not. There needs to be a massive project dealing with making phones platform agnostic.
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Have you shopped for those items recently? You have 200 buck computers and 2000 buck phones.
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EU: How often do I have to teach you, old man?
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EU: Thank you Google for complying with the DSA.
This is a a huge part of it, the whole "prevent illegal" parts.
- "easier reporting of illegal content"
- "less exposure to illegal content"
- "level-playing field against providers of illegal content"
The EU isn't going to punish them for this, they will hold this up as the golden standard.
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Where are all the open source phone OSes? Where are the OS agnostic capable hardware phones? Technically some do exist, but I don't think they have any significant market share. Hope I'm wrong though.
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Google slowly suffocated all the 3rd party rom vendors.
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Essentially every browser that's not Firefox or Safari is reskinned Google chrome for a reason. Because it's insanely expensive to build and maintain browsers. Mobile operating systems aren't much different in this regard.
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That's not exactly true. There are several FOSS mobile OSes, such as PostmarketOS, Mobian, Ubuntu Touch, and the various Android ROMs. Once it's compatible, keeping that OS updated is relatively simple.
The issues with mobile OSes are:
- many phones lock their bootloadersl, and every phone mfg seems to do things a little differently
- so many different phone models with different hardware includes, none of which has manufacturer support in Linux
- closed firmware for cell modems, which have their own little OS that needs to work with the main OS; trying to touch this runs into regulatory issues
Basically, supporting a new phone has a lot of upfront work with very little ongoing work.
Web browsers, on the other hand, need to stay updated with constantly shifting web standards, they're a huge malware target so they need to keep up on CVEs, and pages are getting more complex causing performance and rendering issues, and everyone blames the browser. Supporting a new platform is generally trivial, but the ongoing work is immense.
They're very different beasts.
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I will pay hard cash money for some devs to bring postmarketos to quality hardware vendors.
I'm all for buying a pinephone, but man are we missing out on the full potential from some genuinely good OEM hardware stuff like razr flip.
Aside from google doing google things, android has been a bloated java pos toy OS for nearly a decade now. It completely wastes the full potential of superior hardware by running everything on a shitty JVM known as the ART that was designed for when devices had <512mb of RAM. A Nintendo 3DS can do better multi process tasking than modern android which regularly kills app threads for no reason other than to screw with you because you dared to switch to a different app for 5 seconds.
Android was supposed to be the big apple killer because of its closeness to a desktop OS with heavy emphasis on widespread features and functionality. Even technically speaking, rooting got you there if you wanted to run whatever straight on the linux environment or swap kernels.
Its nothing but a ripoff iOS clone now. Android 7/8 was probably the peak of development and usability, and even back then people were complaining it didn't have groundbreaking improvements like 6 or lollipop.
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I don't think that it's the lack of quality hardware what is stopping adoption of Linux on phones. There are many resons why I don't consider someting like PostmarketOS viable as a daily driver for most.
First of all some apps are just not available on Linux. Banking apps are a prime example. Most banks are now requiring some form of app where I live and they don't even consider Linux. But that's also another problem in it self.
Secondly: driver support. Drivers aren't something one thinks about when talking about phones. But they are needed and mobile phones being what they are, most manufacturers aren't really open to do anything in that regard.
As an Android developer I'm also annoyed by the restrictive power management of Android. But it's there for a reason. On PostmarketOS my phone would be dead after sitting around all day doing noting. On Android I can maybe squeeze two to three days of use out of the same phone. And that's not even with the OEM rom.
That being said, I hope for a future were all of the current issues can be solved and we finally have a viable alternative to Apple and Google.
To be clear, I'm in no way trying to defend what Google is doing.
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I honestly don't care about apps. I switched to GrapheneOS and opted to not use Google Play Services, so my app selection is very limited, especially for things like banking apps. It turns out I can just use the website for the vast majority of them, and I can fill in the gaps with FDroid apps.
The main things stopping me from using a Linux phone (eg PostmarketOS) are:
- MMS compatibility - I use this a lot with family, and getting everyone on Signal or something isn't going to happen
- battery efficiency - the best I've heard is 8 hours with light use, and there are still issues receiving notifications in standby mode
- hardware quality issues and drivers - every phone supported by PostmarketOS either has a bunch of unsupported hardware (ie no camera support), or the hardware is poor (ie the PinePhone has crappy audio)
I don't need a flagship with top tier driver support, I just need basic phone things to work. I'm even okay with poor camera quality, provided I can take pictures of things and clearly read the text later. I don't need much in terms of app support, and I'm willing to help port things I need. But my phone needs to work as a phone, and it needs to do so all day without needing to charge until night.
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If you have the ability to, don't use a smartphone. You'll be better off and you don't have to care about stuff like this anymore.
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For real, when this thing rolls out, I'm going to stop updating and try to still use my foss apps for as long as they still work, once my phone eventually becomes useless I'm not going to spend 400 on an expensive phone just so I can run custom roms. I will have to just get used to not having a computer in my pocket all the time again.
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FYI: Apple got sued for blocking other app stores. This would prevent f-droid from being installable
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f-droid would be verified right?
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It'd be up to Google to do so, and they probably will just as an example of them totally not being a monopoly "look we even allowed a competing store".
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I kinda miss my BlackBerry.
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Kinda? More like deeply.
Hands down the best experience I have had on a phone was my z10. Over 10 years later, and I still use BlackBerry's keyboard.
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Did some research and here are your options:
- use custom mod (the new restriction only applies to certified devices). You can use microG (/e/, iode, Lineage) or sandboxing (GrapheneOS) to run apps requiring Google services. Google will still try to kill it but my bet is it will still work for at least a couple of years
- Ubuntu Touch - you can buy new devices with it, it can run android apps using waydroid but you will not be able to run any apps requiring google services. It can run native Linux apps. Native UT apps are build using QML. It has a completely new system API so it's closer to Android then native Linux. It's based on Halium which uses the kernel from Android
- PostmarketOS - native Linux running native Linux apps. Can use waydroid. Few supported devices but everything works on PinePhone Pro and few others phones.
- Droidian or similiar - Debian running on Halium. Kind of half way between PostmarketOS and Ubunut Touch. Native Linux but running on Android based kernel
Personally, I will stick with GrapheneOS for now (my Pixel still has at least 6 years of support). When I'm unable to run all the apps I need on it I will switch to two phones setup: stock Android for work/car apps, some Linux phone for everything else. When my Pixel dies I will switch to iPhone.
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What are u talking about. Were u living under a rock? - Google killed off most custom roms
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Google has already started killing GrapheneOS by removing device trees from AOSP releases. Android 16 works fine, but for how long?
I would imagine the first thing any custom ROM would do is bypass Google's app restrictions.
I wouldn't be surprised if in 3 years I would need to pass hardware attestation to install a calculator app from the Play store.
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I would imagine the first thing any custom ROM would do is bypass Google’s app restrictions.
Those restrictions don't apply to custom ROMs. Yes, it's clear Google is trying to kill custom ROMs but I think we still have couple of years. Linux phones are improving fast and I think in 5 years we will end up in the same spot we were with PCs 20 years ago: you will be able do most of daily driving on a Linux phones but some apps just won't be possible to run (Authenticator apps, banking apps, Whats App, Android Auto...). Dual booting will not be possible so most probably I will end up with two phones: daily driver and work/car phone.
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GrapheneOS still intends to support all the supported devices until EOL. The sideloading change doesn’t affect them. It won’t apply to GrapheneOS. It only applies to certified OSes and GrapheneOS is not certified because it doesn’t license Google Mobile Services. As per the rip out of the device trees for Pixels, that just makes Pixels like other phones. GrapheneOS has been able to expand it’s automation to build that device support themselves. For new devices, making the support will take longer than it did in the past though, but they will still support those Pixels, as long as they meet the hardware requirements and still allow third-party OS support with all security features intact. Besides that GrapheneOS is actively talking with a major Android OEM right now in order to help them reach the security requirements for a subset of their future devices. They are very optimistic about tha
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What's a good custom ROM for a Samsung Fold 7? Just bought one and it's my dream phone so so I don't want to give it up so soon already, just so I can watch YouTube without ads. Planned on keeping it for at least the next 4-5 years...
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You really should have thought about that before buying the device. You cannot install a custom ROM on my Samsung device anymore.
You always have to look at what devices custom ROMs support BEFORE buying them.
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If you want to use custom ROMs you have to check support before buying a phone. Fold 7 is not supported by any custom ROMs from what I can see. Also, I'm pretty sure you can just use Fennec with Adblock on stock Android and not have ads.
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If you want custom roms, you have a fairly restricted set of options for phones.
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Do any alternatives allow using banking apps or android pay or android auto?
I realize there are no substitutes for banking apps, but are there any alternatives for android auto or pay if those cannot be installed? Preferably Linux alternatives.
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The substitutes for banking apps are banking websites. If your bank does not allow you to use your bank from a website, you should switch banks. I did.
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/e/OS works with most, according to this list.
The founder of /e/OS has a blog where he talks about alternative payment solutions, and he mentions Curve being one.
I just recently ordered the Fairphone with /e/OS, and will be looking into this myself soon enough...
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Curve is not available in US and has terrible reviews on Play store.
I'd switch in a heartbeat, but I can't live without a smart watch and having to pay with physical cc again would be a massive downgrade.
I have a suspicion that all the android clones will become a much worse/unusable experience once Google implements these changes.
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Seriously, I see these custom Android Auto USB Sticks that people use to watch Netflix and I just want to know how they hooked into the APIs to do that
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Wasn't Apple sued for not allowing sideloading?
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You will be able sideload but the developer has to be authorized by Google. I.e. you can still install apps from f-droid but people publishing apps on f-droid will have to register with Google.
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Google getting rid of all the things that made people want an android phone over an iPhone.
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Yup my first thought was “Where is your God now?”
Google ditched “Don’t be evil” a long time ago.
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Linux phones are moving fast but it feels like Android is moving faster on the other direction 😥
(Yes I know Android is built over Linux, I mean more traditional and open distros like postmarketos)
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Yep, if this happens there is no benefit to android.
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I mean, there is still UI/UX, app store policies, and general cost/options.
This definitely makes Android a lot less appealing. But it is also questionable to act like the biggest reason to use android was sideloading apps since the vast majority of users don't even know that is an option (and probably shouldn't since they have no understanding of how to vet them). Especially since Apple isn't any better (?).
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It's still a step up from iOS, which has had similar restrictions since they started.
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Whatever things made people get into Android some 20 years ago are no longer relevant to the majority of people.
The biggest benefit will remain the apps. People love apps. In that regard, their only competition is Apple. It's why no one can make a new phone OS.
The other reason is cost. If you want a cheap device, Apple has no such thing. There are hundreds of Android devices you can buy for a couple hundred dollars.
For those who buy Samsung flagships for more than an iPhone, well those people I can't explain.
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For those who buy Samsung flagships for more than an iPhone, well those people I can't explain.
Well, it could be explained before: Flagship hardware without the restrictions of iOS.
Now..... After this bullshit..... yeah....... -
I can see apps becoming less important over time. PWAs were basically what Apple originally planed for the smartphone anyway and now they are capable of damn near anything you would want an app to do. No store to rely on. No updates to install. No storage space being eaten into. The browser engine functions as a layer of abstraction between the scary untrusted app and your own OS. It’s kinda perfect.
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Unfortunately, that is 0.1% of their global market that is affected. So, they don't really have much to lose.
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Ffs if I have to move to apple before the third option is stable.
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I will forever lament my windows phone. Ironically, it was the only option that didn't need to be rooted to do custom shit. You could just screw with the registry and program with .net and direct X
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It didn't live long enough to become a villan
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Great. This could be just the boost that free android needs. Graphene and eos can brace for a few new customers i guess
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I've been using graphene for a few months, but this latest news was what reminded me to start a monthly donation to the project. Hopefully Googles shenanigans push more people towards funding alternatives as well
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I've gotta get a new phone soon (ol Pixel 3 is getting long in the tooth) and this is what I'm looking at too. I highly prefer the "default" Android UI, and the ability to install programs of my own choosing — but fuck Google, imagine getting locked out of your phone just because Google randomly unpersoned you.
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Graphene developers seem enthusiastic to all the bullshit that Google comes up with, and on security/privacy tradeoff they seem to usually choose security. Case in point, the mandatory battery update.
CalyxOS seems to choose privacy first, but that project folded recently.
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It didn't fold. They are just reorganizing. Don't spread misinformation.
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I'm probably going to spam this around a bit, since most people don't seem to know about it, but a reminder that FuriLabs has a (GNU+)Linux phone with decent spec.s and the ability to run Android app.s (from what I've heard) pretty decently: https://furilabs.com/
Biggest drawback is it's based on Halium. Usual growing pains of a new product/company apply but apparently the company is pretty responsive and their dev.s have worked with customers to get things like calling working with the carrier and bands of their country where it hasn't worked before so improvements move pretty quickly.
Collection of different experiences I've variously seen online over the last year or so:
- https://clehaxze.tw/gemlog/2025/07-20-flx1-actually-usable-linux-phone.gmi
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41839326
- https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1fa1ljn/furilabs_flx1/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1j46f2w/flx1_linux_phone_display_out/
- https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/03/furiphone_flx1/
I don't own one, myself, so I can't give any personal experience but I've seen it around for a few years now but most people don't seem to even know about it. Maybe there's a reason for that? But none I've ever seen anyone say.
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HOLY SHIT IS THAT A HEADPHONE JACK?!
Seriously this ticks boxes Ive given up on. I never thought Id see a phone with all three: waterproof, removable battery, headphone jack. It even has wireless charging which isnt really one of my boxes but is a little extra if you use it.
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Remember that brief period in the US where, for a fleeting moment, Lina Khan went after a few companies for monopolistic practices?
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Brother let me tell you about my friend Janet Reno, who fucked with Microsoft in 2001...
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Yeah man, those were the days.
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Meanwhile, back at the ranch
Malware-ridden apps made it into Google's Play Store, scored 19 million downloads
https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/26/apps_android_malware/
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Right, only install "verified" from Google Play, but that is where malware is, other 3rd party app stores like F-Droid, that really verify apps are at risk of getting killed by Google
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This is very obviously step one in a plan to kill apps like alternative YouTube clients that block ads, just like the Manifest V3 rollout was intended to kill ad blockers in Chrome. Once they have everyone using this verification system, then they can just arbitrarily deverify anything that contravenes whatever new acceptable usage policy they just made up.
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Google can't keep malware off the platform now, but sure, make it mandatory you can't go anywhere else unless they say so first.
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How about letting the users decide what to sideload? What the hell?
I hope the EU is ready to also sue Google.
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The EU already forced sideloading to be officially supported on iPhones thanks to the Digital Markets Act, and that law applies to Google as well.
The US will likely apply pressure, just like they are trying to force their death machines to be legalized on European roads. Apple already tried to pressure the union and failed, but the political climate has changed a bit since then, and while EU bureaucrats can be fierce, European leadership tends to be weak as fuck.
But yeah, chances are that this change won't apply to the EU. :)
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The EU is currently deepthroating Trump so hard that it's completely out of breath and all our clothes are ruined.
With how volatile Trump is this could change literally anyday, but with the current political equilibrium all google would have to do is gift trump a shiny golden thing so he makes a threatening remark about gas exports and the EU would go "uwu yes master right away master, do you want to fuck my gaping asshole while you're at it?".
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It will probably be for the rest of the world.
EU devices not effected.
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Oof, time to bite the bullet and switch email providers. Shit like this is why I've spent the last couple years de-googling my life.
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Do it! It's not that bad. Everyone's got different needs, but I switched to fastmail and have been enjoying it.
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I don't like how tech is evolving...
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Devolving*
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It’s evolving, just towards authoritarianism.
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There's already a firm divide between the foss/self sufficiency crowd and modern tech.
If this is bad enough, you'd see every foss faithful walking around with a laptop, mp3 player and camera like they're in 2009.
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Every day that passes I use my T480 more and more, it will die with me
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It was always intended to be this way.
The beginning was pre-enshittification. We're going from the good ole' days to the future, and the future sure as shit aint for you unless you're in the club... and you aint, none of us are.
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We need to make our own club, with blackjack and hookers!
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The moment I don't get to run my own stuff and F-Droid, I'll be switching off smartphones.
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Dumbphone with tethering
A mini laptop/cyberdeck
A modern mp3 player
A small, modern point and click camera
hey gramps, where'd you get that gear, 2007?
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Damn I'm gonna need cargo pants to carry all this
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It's not a cyberdeck unless I have trodes and a halo, chummer. But some kind of netbook would be great.
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I'll use the ugliest command line only smartphone over fully walled garden android
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Real talk, are there ones like that?
Ive seen things like https://www.tindie.com/products/zitaotech/hackberrypi5-with-9900-keyboard/ and I REALLY want one....but they are always sold out.
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I'll probably go with one of the other roms on an older phone or possibly one of the Linux phones. It won't be exactly what I want, but it'll be better than their walled garden bullshit. That's precisely why I left Apple way back when.
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Modern business strategy be like "If you're not building an illegal monopoly, consider doing so for more money"
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so basically i have to send in my id to google just to sideload a test apk i made in flutter to my own phone to test it out?
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Ad it's just another data point for corporations and governments to be able to tie all your tech activities to your real identity. Great for surveillance!
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and if it will work like the play store, you will need to upload an apk and download the signed version, so it's not even immediately obvious if they changed anything.
not really an apk but an intermediate build product
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Just like apple. 😔
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Sure glad I de-googled with GrapheneOS that ironically runs on Pixel phones.
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I've been hemming and hawing. Switched to Linux pretty much full time for my PC, this will push me 100% into FOSS phone. Over half my apps I use would get blocked
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Now that the Pixel 10 is out, the Pixel 9 prices are falling. If you're going to load GrapheneOS, you need to make sure you get a phone that has an unlocked bootloader, which is different than being carrier unlocked. Any phone that was initially sold through a carrier like Verizon or ATT will have a locked bootloader, as the carriers don't like people messing with the phone software to unlock features that they may charge for (e.g. hotspot).
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Over half my apps I use would get blocked
Consider many apps are just webpages. You can go to the website directly from a browser and everything is happy.
Obviously won't solve everything, but that covers most apps right there.
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this is doubtless going to hurt whatever third party app store it is that you use anyway. if the only places sideloaded apps are available on, the only options are that custom roms like graphene become more popular, or apps that refuse to be put on Google will dry up.
which do you feel is more likely?
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Is that even legal? Monopolistic behaviour.
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The US Government hasn't given a shit about harmful monopolistic practices in a long time. They only pretend to care from time to time to force large companies to start donating to politicians.
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Like anyone cares outside of EU.
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of course it is. apple has been doing it from the very beginning. now android gets the same walled garden.
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Hello, I would like 1 Class Action please.
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nah, you waived your rights to class action lawsuits on page 178 section 2.4 subsection b) paragraph 5) when you clicked accept on the first time setup screen of your phone.
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If you sue now you can get a second lawsuit for free!
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"
Don'tBe Evil" -
Let Google know what you think: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfN3UQeNspQsZCO2ITkdzMxv81rJDEGGjO-UIDDY28Rz_GEVA/viewform
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Does anyone read these or does it just go through ai?
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Who knows anymore? But I'd rather say something than accept it silently.
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Isn't it against the EU's DSA?
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Yes, probably why this wont affect EU users.
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Ode an die Freude starts playing in the background
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Same outcome as with their search engine, same thing with Chrome, Youtube and many other Google products. They built up their user base with a solid product (or bought it), and then started shitting all over their users by making horrible decisions and inserting all sorts of dark patterns in the name of "security" or whatever else pretense. I'm still hoping another entity steps up and fills the vacuum that Android leaves behind.
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Oh hell yeah, I hope this means an exodus of people forking the latest open source software they can, or if not moving to Linux mobile altogether
Edit:
I had meant that I'd like it if people flocked from developing android to developing Linux mobile. I should have clarified that.
If we could have a solidly performing Linux mobile that has the capability of docking into a full desktop OS, that shit would be an absolute game changer for personal computers.
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If we could have a solidly performing Linux mobile that has the capability of docking into a full desktop OS, that shit would be an absolute game changer for personal computers.
Give me something like the OG Moto Droid, or hell make it a tablet and I have to carry a bag, I don't care.
That would be my device for everything. I just remote into everything else anyway.
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Thats not how most people work.
Just because there's a problem, doesn't mean people seek a solution.
Thats why the majority of people in this country. They can each admit there is a problem. But they do nothing about it. Most don't even try to diet or exercise.
And you want them to switch to an unfinished linux phone system. They aren't going to do that over this change. The vast majority don't use more than 5 apps. What do they care? For most, the cell phone is the replacement for a pc, snd all its used for is to text, and go on tiktok and instagram.
The changes you're suggesting will work well for a certain crowd. That crowd is maybe 5% of the general population. The rest won't even notice. And if they did, they'd just put up with it.
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Please read my comment below, editing above too
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Linux mobile is interesting but not ready yet.
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Linux mobile phones won't have to be ready if smartphones become un-ready.
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Ah yeah, I had meant that I'd like it if people flocked from developing android to developing Linux mobile. I should have clarified that.
If we could have a solidly performing Linux mobile that has the capability of docking into a full desktop OS, that shit would be an absolute game changer for personal computers.
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Not ready but if Google and all the manufacturers kill custom ROMs, everyone will have to switch to Linux or another OS. It's not like Linux on the desktop where Windows is still acceptable.
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Mobile desperately needs hardware with first class open source drivers and firmware to get away from Google/Apple/Microsoft controlled software platforms. Phones have been super powerful for a long time beyond what most need. We can take hit in theoretical peak performance to build up a better ecosystem until the market is large enough that the big money has to address the market
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Finally. This will give a laaaarge boost to harmony os based phones (Huawei) saying Americans goodbye
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You know, while I was never under the illusion that the US was issue free, it used to be that I didn't want to buy a chinese phone because of the foreign spying. Now though, my own country is making it so that I'd rather take foreign spying over homegrown. Hope I can grab a pixel 9 soon so that I can use Graphene and dodge both.
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199 comments
I am toying with the idea of creating a PDA of sort from a raspberry pie, touchscreen and a powerbank. Case can be 3d printed, it would be bulky af and equipped with Tails or some other secure OS.
Why not just get a PinePhone?
Because they are cool and build phones from scratch