I sideloaded fdroid and install most of my apps over that. From the text I don’t understand what the actually change will be.
For apps installed through the play store, developers have the option to add these “layers of security” with Play Integrity. The one the screenshot shows keeps you from opening and using an app if specific apps are detected to be running in the background (like a bank app blocking you from using it if a screen recorder app is running on the background). Another feature is apps blocking them from running if they weren’t installed from the play store (like side loading a bank app and it prevents it from running because it might be malicious).
For apps distributed outside of the Play Store (and for people side loading them) and those running rooted/bootloader unlocked devices nothing changes, as Play Integrity is no longer in effect in those cases
the image at the top seems to be the only real hint - it looks like it’s supposed to be for restricting which apps may run in the background while performing “secure” tasks in other apps
“Security” meaning “preventing users from using the devices they own in the way they want to use them” apparently.
If you root, unlock your bootloader or run a custom ROM, nothing changes since your device does not pass the integrity checks and Google already had a feature for developers to block apps from running on those devices.
These new additions are also entirely irrelevant for apps distributed outside of the Play Store since Play Integrity requires the app being downloaded from the store.
Also, all of these additions are entirely up to the developers to add, Google is not forcing anything.
They call out making spoofing harder, although they don’t specify how.
It’s a normal thing for people to sideload apps that are distributed through the play store - that’s exactly what tools like Aurora do.
You are right that they are up to developers, but that’s the problem. It should be up to users how they run their software on their hardware.
Android peaked with version 9.
… Great
of course Another way to track you
