Google has news on what you will need to do for still being able to sideload apps:

[grote@chaos.social]

Google has news on what you will need to do for still being able to sideload apps:

* enable developer options
* confirm that you are not tricked
* restart phone and re-authenticate
* wait one day
* confirm with biometrics that you know what you are doing
* decide if you only want unrestricted installs for 1 week or forever
* confirm that you accept the risks
* enjoy the few apps that still have developers motivated to develop for a user-base willing to put up with this

https://goo.gle/advance-flow

[lexyeen@plush.city]

@grote remember, kids: "sideloading" is just "installing software that isn't on the app store." the corpos are just calling it "sideloading" because it sounds shadier.

[timwardcam@c.im]

@grote But what about companies that develop their own internal apps to interface with their own internal systems to be installed on company-supplied devices?

[stw@mastodon.social]

@grote I guess anyone willing to jump through all those hoops has already installed Graphene or Lineage or whatever.

[grote@chaos.social]

@TimWardCam That's not my main concern, but I think there's exceptions for device management solutions. Also they could just register with Google if needed.

[ziclaud@mastodon.social]

*Cries in Redmi phones* (they're not allowing me to unlock the bootloader 💀)

[eestileib@tech.lgbt]

@stw @grote

Pretty much yeah, I grabbed a Pixel 10a for graphene and that'll probably be my last one.

[terminaltilt@climatejustice.social]

@grote

The irony of the biometric requirement.

In many jurisdictions, a PIN is "content of the mind" (legal protection), but your fingerprint is "physical evidence." By forcing biometrics into the sideloading, they are pushing users toward a security method with weaker legal safeguards.

[grote@chaos.social]

They even have a video up where they try to make this all sound nice and positive:

[tezoatlipoca@mas.to]

@grote

If we DO go through all this bullshit to sideload or get F-droid installed... so now our phone is in developer mode. Are there going to be any authorized Google store apps that detect developer mode and go "nuh-uh"? And if that's the case, and I disable developer mode (presumeably borking our F-droid/sideload apps?), will I have to wait 24 hrs to RE-enable dev mode?

[nazokiyoubinbou@urusai.social]

@grote Something tells me LineageOS is about to suddenly get 100x more popular....

Of course then they'll have to start more obsessively locking down bootloaders and probably even remove the unlock option in anything they can. We've begun an age where even the open devices are now going to soon be closed and locked down.

And yeah, it's past time for a real OS.

[nazokiyoubinbou@urusai.social]

@tezoatlipoca @grote From the look of what they're saying, yes, if you disable it it would be another 24 hours to reenable.

I wouldn't put it past them to limit how often or even how many times you can enable it.

[old_angry_queer@girlcock.club]

@terminaltilt yeah, i don't like that. i don't even give my phone my fingerprints in the first place.

@grote

[lkundrak@metalhead.club]

@grote one year later we've updated our policies

* wait extra day
* enable accelerometer
* wank the phone for 10 minutes
* wait another day

[benjistokman@mast.benstokman.me]

@grote the fact that there's a reboot in the chain proves that even Google doesn't believe closing down android keeps users safe

[lioh@social.anoxinon.de]

@grote so is not so bad in the end.

[oatrapado@mastodon.social]

@grote i want to stop using inoperative systems like android or ios, that's it

[fifisch@social.vivaldi.net]

@nazokiyoubinbou @grote However scary the whole new Google process is for the non-expert user, installing a new OS on your daily driver phone is a hundred times scarier.

[nazokiyoubinbou@urusai.social]

@FifiSch @grote I don't really understand that. The instructions are so simple and detailed and the "new OS" is basically exactly the same thing right down to having the same basic startup configuration and etc. The only difference is the Google connections are optional and one can decide for themselves how far they want to go.

It's pretty much just tapping a few things, then copying and pasting two lines or so. Once it's booted you wouldn't tell it apart from stock other than its cleanliness. It's easier than installing Linux on a PC and that's actually a lot easier and less scary than people have been convinced.

I bet if people didn't let Google, Apple, and etc convince them that they are so scared of installing third party options we never would have reached this point.

[stonebear2@hachyderm.io]

@grote ctrl-alt-fsckit, that just put making a de-googled phone way the f*** up there on my priority list.