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Google's annoying 'update ownership' sideload warning spreads to more apps and phones
(www.androidpolice.com)
this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2024
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It's also very obviously an attempt by Google to scare non-tech savvy people away from third party app stores and sideloading. Regardless of the actual risks involved, it's very beneficial to their bottom line if people fear anything "unofficial", so they're going to maximize every chance to reinforce that fear. A tactic Apple and Microsoft also use to great effect.
But for example, the only official download page for "AccuWeather" is the Google Play Store. Downloading apps from unofficial sources is a common avenue for malware. If you are installing an apk from something that's not the official page for that app, you had better know what you're doing.
I don't think this shows up if you're trying to download an update to an F-Droid app, or even F-Droid itself, since those apps don't use this feature.
I think Google Play Protect uploading all your sideloaded apps is a bigger issue than showing a warning for unofficial downloads of official apps.
The only risk I see is that maybe this could be annoying for Aurora Store users, but I would think there's some bypass for people with degoogled roms.
Except you can't update an app at all if the new apk was modified and thus its signature doesn't match with the installed one. The only thing it's trying to 'protect' from is updating from other sources
Shame on Google where shame is due, but I don't think this is it.
There are actual risks here. You could end up here without realizing what you're doing. The action itself is kind of scary so any messaging around it is inherently going to be scary.
That said, Google is much more open about allowing these doors to remain open than their competition. And they don't have nearly as much fear mongering about these things than their competition. Sure, it would help their bottom line too, but this one actually has some credibility. But you could say that about almost any decision - that doesn't mean it's "obviously an attempt to...."
Let's burn Google at the stake for lots of the shit they do, but this ain't it.
It also adds FUD, masking the issue of the play store being the greatest distributor of malware
I mean if someone is sideloading apps I think we have to admit a bit of tech savvyness
Isn't the tech savvyness required to sideload not mostly by design? If it was basically the same process then regular people may use it like the 1st party store.
I strongly disagree. You can literally just search like "xxx app free" and find a link to download it and click "open". I wouldn't consider that tech savvy at all.
that actually is dangerous though and should spark a warning. Man I don't even remember the time when it was relatively safe to just search an app and install it.
Yeah.. Agreed. I just don't think you need to be tech savvy at all to get through the process.
The point of the new EU laws is exactly that the average user should have no more difficulty installing an app from a third party app store than Google's or Apple's.
yeah sideloading assumes the app is not in a store though no? Does this happen with f-droid then otr such? the google warning that is.