Posted by rom1v 10/28/2025
I think we should focus on defending the slowly-vanishing ability to unlock the bootloader and fight for the core parts of Android to stay open source.. without these two, installing an APK will mean less and less until it might eventually become synonymous with installing a PWA.
Thankfully there's the likes of GrapheneOS, however, with Google's recent changes, unless their OEM partner pulls through, their days are likely numbered.
I guess if it was, people would be turning off the network permission of all the "apps that perform a trivial function, but with ads", like I always do.
In the US maybe. In Europe, not so much. With Apple having a market share of "only" about one third and WhatsApp being the de facto default messaging app, this discussion never happened here.
Therefore your argument doesn't apply to Europe at all. Android is more than the "hacky" part. Albeit I'd really love to keep that.
99.9% of people who use Android have never, and never will, install apps outside the Play Store, and aren't even aware that they can do so.
I'd guesstimate that close to 50% of Android users know how to install an apk.
Outside of the Western market, installing Android apps not from Google Play is a completely normal and regular thing. In countries like India, Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria, and the Philippines (which represent a massive portion of global Android users) it is a standard part of using a phone.
> Judgment of the General Court of 14 September 2022 — Google and Alphabet v Commission (Google Android) > > The General Court largely confirms the Commission's decision that Google imposed unlawful restrictions on manufacturers of Android mobile devices and mobile network operators in order to consolidate the dominant position of its search engine
https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/202...
Press release:
https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/202...
The UK petition link appears to be broken:
* https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-sa...
Feedback: Closed Consultation period 17 July 2025 - 24 October 2025 (midnight Brussels time)
I also recall a time in the nascent era of web file hosts, like Rapidshare.de and Mega upload, and some others that came and went so quick that I don't even remember their names, some services offered the option to "sideload" (as opposed to download) straight to their file server.
In the past, they forced Steam to implement proper refund policies, and they are currently suing Microsoft about the way subscribers were duped into paying more for "AI features" they didn't want.
https://keepandroidopen.org/ is about sending messages, which I have done and will continue to do. But I want to open my wallet.
As of now, I can create APKs of my apps and install them on my mother's phone by unchecking the "prevent apps from other sources" option.
Even after going through so many articles, I still don't know unambiguously whether I can continue this workflow in future, or I'll need Google's approval to install on just our own 2 family phones.
There's a failure in communications here from both sides.
Ambiguity suits Google perfectly fine.
But it's counterproductive to its opponents because every dev who's confused will remain a fence-sitter rather than an ally, even if only motivated by personal inconvenience rather than any principled stand.
I doubt I'm the only Android dev who's confused. I hope at least f-droid communicates more clearly the consequences of this policy to all types of developers and deployment scenarios.