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.

5 points

Fucking hell just when I decided to get my first pixel after leaving Samsung

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1 point

Pixels have really good custom Roms available.

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1 point
*

But what breaks though? I heard android auto is broke with Graphene. AA is a requirement for me

Edit: apparently AA broke on a crap ton of Custom Roms including CalyxOS

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1 point

That might be a showstopper and I don’t know anything about AA when it comes to custom roms.

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1 point

This isn’t just a pixel thing tho?

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1 point
*

Yeah but I was thinking about iOS again since I could upgrade phones. If google is going to make android like iOS why stay,…?

Edit: FYI I had a jailbroken Dopamine iPhone

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66 points

Isn’t that a textbook monopolistic practices lawsuit?

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36 points

Sounds more like DRM, since it’s for developers to choose whether or not to disable side loading their apps

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Well, that will make it easy to uninstall apps.

All my homies download from fdroid

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11 points

Apps on F-Droid are not using proprietary Google APIs and won’t be affected.

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2 points

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.

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8 points

Because the developers want to check whether you got the app from the Play Store.

If the developers don’t care where you get the app from, then they won’t check.

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2 points

So you’re saying it should allow for developers to allow exclusive installation from third party stores as well? Like amazon? Fair.

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8 points

Not really since it’s opt in for the developers who chose to distribute only on the play store

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25 points

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.

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4 points

The app checks if the current user is licenced so you would have to crack the DRM to bypass it. It’s not like the DRM is simply a filehash and all you have to do to avoid it is to change a byte or two.

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21 points

Right in the monopoly back you go

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16 points

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.

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