Teggy1d ago
Fabio Manganiello

#Android is dying.

We all know that #Google wants to kill the “unverified/sideloaded” apps (names carefully selected by Google’s professional gaslighters to give a negative connotation to “apps that are not distributed by Google’s own store”).

We all know that the new “verification process” amounts basically to a ransom where you need to give Google your keys and your money if you want to build apps for Android.

It involves developers handing their signing keys to a user-hostile American company (so they will sign your package for you and will also able to decrypt your secrets) and paying them a $25 fee for each app.

Even if you don’t even use the Play Store to distribute your apps.

This is not a price to pay to get the app distributed through them, nor for using any of their services. It’s a price to pay just because they want to control the whole ecosystem end-to-end, and they know that they can get away with that because you’ll keep using their shitty OS even if you’re outraged at them.

We all know that they got a lot of backlash. And after the backlash they reiterated that they “listened to the community” and would have made a process to still allow people to “sideload apps”.

Well, today that process has been finally unveiled. And it sounds even shittier than I thought.

That’s because Google is currently filled with the best professional enshittificators in the world: the job role of these people is not to build new things, nor to listen to customers and build what they want. No, their job is specifically to find the sweet spot where they can make things as shitty as possible, add as much friction and user frustration as possible to prevent them from doing a certain thing, while still being able to tell regulators “well, it’s not that shitty, you see? We still give users an option - buried under 10 layers of dark patterns”.

In order to install apps external to the Play Store you will have to:

  • Activate the developer settings (the usual “tap the build number 7 times to show the hidden menu” thing)

  • In the developer settings, enable “Allow Unverified Padckages”

  • Confirm that you are not being coerced (seriously, how much malware did they actually see installed by people being coerced or tricked to download and install random APK files?)

  • Restart your device

  • Wait 24 hours

  • Return to the unverified packages settings

  • Scroll past 3-4 additional warnings whose sole purpose is to scare you off

  • Select either “Allow temporarily“ (7 days) or “Allow indefinitely“ (and I’ve got a hunch that the Allow indefinitely option will probably be gradually phased out)

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/03/google-details-new-24-hour-process-to-sideload-unverified-android-apps/

Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

The "advanced flow" will be available before verification enforcement begins later this year.

Ars Technica
Mar 20 at 7:02amWeb
Show threadFlaki1d ago
@fabio I really fucking hope Fairphone folks have an exit strategy here, selling a "long-lasting" phone with a rigged OS is...not good.
Show threadPhilipp 1d ago
@flaki @fabio well, there's Murena /e/OS for #Fairphone
Show threadFlaki1d ago
@derfopps /e/OS is still Android (practically a beefed-up Limeage OS, I'm using it on my FP6)
Show threadszakib1d ago
@flaki @derfopps It's a fork of an open source project. The good thing about having the sources is that one can freely edit anything (out).
Show threadwall-e1d ago

@fabio seriously it's bad. postmarketOS is not nearly ready as a serious replacement for most people.
From what I see on their device compatibility lists, not a single supported device has support for all features.

If vendors don't start to cooperate or serious money and dev resources are invested into these projects, we're kinda cooked

Show threadmossman1d ago

@wall_e @fabio I've been very disappointed when I went looking to install something other than the OEM Android on one of my phones. All the alternative OSes seem to actually be pretty limited in which devices they can be installed on.

About three years ago I bought a cheap phone specifically to keep all my company's corporate crap away from my personal phone and now they've blocked access to it since the Android version is "too old". So now I have a perfectly functional brick. I couldn't find any alternative to install on it (though I expect the company's Microsoft crap might reject any alternatives as "unsafe" anyway).

Show threadjesterchen421d ago

@fabio One thing that I just don't understand: Apple opens up for sideloading due to the European Digital Markets Act, and same time Google announces to close everything.

How does that work in the same jurisdiction? Doesn't the DMA apply as well? Why is #keepandroidopen neccessary?

Show threadFabio Manganiello1d ago

@jesterchen that’s where I think the skill of Google’s professional enshittifiers comes in.

Apple didn’t give you much of a choice - either you installed apps from their store, and developers pushed all the payment flows through Apple, or nothing.

Google can still say that they give a choice instead. Sure, it involves knowing that you need to tap an item in the menu 7 times in order to show a hidden menu, it involves an extra setting guarded by 5 layers of warnings, it requires you to reboot your phone and wait 24 hours, it requires you to enable the thing only temporarily…but they can still say to regulators “hey we’re not that bad, we still provide users with alternatives”. Just like they could tell them that they don’t hold a monopoly in Web browsers because they give some peanuts to Mozilla.

And I think that it should be up to regulators at some point to acknowledge that enough friction and dark patterns introduced in the way of a user’s intentions also means that you’re not playing in good faith, and that you should be punished just as much as you would be punished if you were to take that option away altogether.

Show threadVsevolod1d ago
@fabio @jesterchen
Professional enshittifiers 🤔 Well said.
Not the first time g**gle presents amazingly evil almost troll solutions.
For example, made the youtube to load slower based on user agent.
(so firefox looks rendering worse and you cannot easily explain it)
I wonder how do they find the employees to invent such things.
Show threadFabio Manganiello1d ago
@post_reader @jesterchen https://eupolicy.social/@finnmyrstad/116141082378515849 🙂
Finn Lützow-Holm Myrstad (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 video ❓Have you noticed that digital products and services are getting worse? So have we! ➡️We have published a report about enshittification, on how and why digital products and services keep getting worse - and how we can turn the trend (hint: open tech, enforcement, public policy++) Obviously @[email protected] is a big inspiration and help in this work. More than 80 groups in Europe and the US has joined in a call to action. More here: https://www.forbrukerradet.no/breakingfree Enjoy this short film!

EUpolicy.social - A Mastodon server for the EU bubble
Show threadAljoscha Rittner (beandev)1d ago

@fabio

Hello @EUCommission, your part starts here.

Show threadDDRitter🎗️  1d ago
@fabio Last step is rumored to be dancing a reverse conga while having your phone on one hand doing the moebius rotation to fix the compass.
Show threadROllerozxa1d ago

@fabio Unfortunately the fragmentation of the ARM ecosystem means that neither postmarketOS or even custom Android ROMs are gonna be a viable option for most people who are still on Android.

There are too many SoCs and hardware features being produced, not enough volunteers to support them. There are no custom ROMs for my phone, couldn't even flash something if I wanted to.

Show threadVictor1d ago

@fabio

"Google feels a responsibility to Android users worldwide, and things are different than they used to be with more than 3 billion active devices out there"

Thats the same company that passed the chrome store extension where 8 million users' AI conversations edre sold ?

https://www.koi.ai/blog/urban-vpn-browser-extension-ai-conversations-data-collection

8 Million Users' AI Conversations Sold for Profit by "Privacy" Extensions

Privacy browser extensions misled users and sold 8 million AI chat logs, exposing sensitive conversations for profit without consent.

Show threadAlexa Devreux-Swift1d ago

@fabio

Unfortunately my Moto g42 is not supported by any of the mobile Linux distro, although my tablet runs Ubuntu natively which IS good news.

Show threadRamnarayan Kalyanaraman1d ago

@alexadeswift @fabio

Which tablet is this ?

I was thinking that a way to avoid google/ ios all together would be to access mobile internet via a hotspot dongle + non smart phone (for otp's) (India loves otp's our lives revolve around dozens of otp's a day)

And the front end for mobile computing could be a non google non ios tablet

So very keen to know about such devices

Thanks

Show threadCharo del Genio1d ago
@fabio with the premise that I agree with the post in principle and certainly in spirit, there is still one big problem. Some companies (and some universities) require the use of authenticating apps that only run on "official" Android/iOS. Some banking applications have a similar requirement. What is a viable way to work around this, if there is one?
Show threadFabio Manganiello1d ago

@paraw for now GrapheneOS seems to play well with most of them - at least in the case of my banking + ID apps. Mileage may vary however - the Google Wallet can’t work (I use a separate smartwatch for that), and I’ve heard of some banks (namely HSBC) whose apps also break on GrapheneOS. But in general, if you’re looking for a fully ungoogled Android with 90% of the ID/banking/government apps working, that could be a good pick.

On the long run, once I fully migrate to a Linux phone my plan is still to walk around with another device (switched off by default) that I only use if I need to use an app that wouldn’t otherwise work on my primary driver.

Show threadCarlos Solís1d ago
@paraw @fabio Sadly: being able to afford two separate devices, one that passes all the authentications, and another one for actual private usage.
Show threadszakib23h ago
@paraw @fabio Those companies/universities should provide the device if it is required and the user does not have them.
Show threadCharo del Genio16h ago
@szakib @fabio I agree, but they usually don't. On the other hand, I know of a university that, some time ago, used to pressure their faculty members to use uni-provided devices *also for all their personal stuff*. Devices that had a shitload of surveillance software on them, of course.
Show threadAlessandro Corazza 🇨🇦1d ago

@fabio

Google's "malware" excuse is so transparently bullshit. If they cared about malware they'd start by cleaning up the Play Store, which they already fully control but have let become a pile of mostly garbage.

Show threadThe 500 Hats of LambdaCalculus1d ago

@fabio Problem is though is that @postmarketOS, while a great project and one I will always advocate for, is hardly ready for primetime on a vast number of devices.

Seriously, look at all the devices listed under "testing" and "downstream" and see how many of them hardly support all the features or even have working flashing functionality.

Plus, it doesn't have an intuitive way of installation for a good number of end users.

I do hope this changes so it becomes a viable alternative.

Show threadFabio Manganiello1d ago
@lambdacalculus @postmarketOS it must change because by the end of this year the Android ecosystem will get three lethal punches from Google (Play Store developers verification, age verification and more and more hardware manufacturers blocking the bootloader). And that may leave us with very little viable alternatives to enshittification. I really hope that funding gets redirected where it needs, after two decades of complacency we need something that works.
Show threadThe 500 Hats of LambdaCalculus1d ago
@fabio @postmarketOS I agree, and I also will say that, while licensing allows it, if the community must hard fork AOSP, then we hard fork it, tell Google to eat an entire bag of shit, and we take AOSP in its own direction.
Show threadtofe1d ago
@fabio are they really locking the bootloader with an update?
Show threadFabio Manganiello1d ago
@tofe that’s what Samsung, Xiaomi and Huawei have already done, in different flavours. Either outright blocking the bootloader unlock feature, or disabling download mode, or purposefully breaking existing compatible flashing tools, either retroactively or on new devices. When it was only Xiaomi doing these things a year ago I could simply avoid their devices, now it’s become a worrying industry trend.
Show threadtofe17h ago
@fabio piglia male, guess I'll unlock it before the update
Show threadPhilipp 1d ago
@fabio Shall we write an addon for Firefox that mimics this workflow for users attempting to access a Google owned web service?