0xedbGoogle details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps
https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/03/android-de...
The part in the flow where you select between allowing app installs for 7 days or forever is a glimpse into the future. That toggle shows the thought process that's going on at Google.
I can bet that a few versions down the line, the "Not recommended" option of allowing installs indefinitely will become so not recommended that they'll remove it outright. Then shrink the 7 day window to 3 days or less. Or only give users one allowed attempt at installing an app, after which it's another 24 hour waiting period for you. Then ask the user to verify themselves as a developer if they want to install whatever they want. Whatever helps them turn people away from alternatives and shrink the odds of someone dislodging their monopoly, they will do. Anything to drive people to Google Play only.
Pay verification fee to continue
>"PLEASE DRINK VERIFICATION CAN TO CONTINUE"
Context: https://files.catbox.moe/eqg0b2.png
I think they later made a Black Mirror episode along these lines. "Resume viewing... Resume viewing..."
Fiften Million Merits. The one where advertisers literally torture a man with loud high pitched noises because he refused to view ads and didn't have enough money to skip them.
Every one of BM's episodes is extremely good. Fifty Million Merits has so many parts that show precisely how evil technology can be.
Common People is utterly terrifying. Woman falls into a coma, so startup uploads her mind to the cloud so it can stream her mind back to her. Then they start to enshittify the poor woman's life. Can't even sleep because they're using her brain as a CPU. She gets mercy killed while blurting out ads for antidepressants to the person doing it.
Metalhead is also among my favorites. Those kill bots put Skynet to shame.
I think the last 2(?) seasons lost the essence of what made Black Mirror great but the older ones are excellent. Older episodes often felt directly applicable to the evils of technology we use today but these newer ones seem to be more generic Sci-Fi, season 6 didn't feel like Black Mirror at all to me.