cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19650358
Through an updated Google API, Android app developers can now effectively block sideloading and force downloads from the Play Store.
Isn’t that a textbook monopolistic practices lawsuit?
Sounds more like DRM, since it’s for developers to choose whether or not to disable side loading their apps
Well, that will make it easy to uninstall apps.
All my homies download from fdroid
Apps on F-Droid are not using proprietary Google APIs and won’t be affected.
But the picture I saw said “get this app from play” not, “get this app from a trusted store”. That to me does not read DRM.
So you’re saying it should allow for developers to allow exclusive installation from third party stores as well? Like amazon? Fair.
I guess the next step in piracy is to change the apk enough that it doesn’t get recognized correctly, if that’s possible? Though then everyone will have to worry about malware-ridden apps.
I think this is horrible, aside from piracy, because you may want or need to stay on an older version of an app. I have had to for devices at work that require a specific version or just an easy way to manage the device and ensure devices only got updates we approved through our MDM.
Right in the monopoly back you go
Google made this available so they can encourage developers to use it and say “we’re not a monopoly, the developers are adding the check” and see how long they can get away with it.
I wonder if the latest “play integrity fix” module could solve that problem. Its already allowing me to use bank apps on my rooted phone, so I assume it would let me sideload too if the integrity was “fixed”. Google is making more problems with paid solutions.
