Edit: For what it’s worth, you can give Google feedback to stop this nonsense. Scroll down to Get Ready section and click on Share your feedback. You can use the following text as an example.

Android’s strength has always been in being both secure and open. Restricting sideloading goes against this principle and does little to protect users. The existing toggle and clear warnings are already enough to inform users of the risks.

Meanwhile, the Play Store itself continues to be the main source of Android malware. In 2023 alone, malicious apps on Google Play were downloaded over 600 million times. More recently, 77 infected apps with 19 million installs and 200+ other malicious apps with nearly 8 million installs slipped past Play Protect. These numbers make it clear where the real problem lies.

If Google truly wants to protect users, the focus should be on strengthening Play Store defenses. Android’s openness is not the threat; malware inside the official store is. Please prioritize fixing that instead of undermining one of Android’s core values.

I’m considering leaving Apple for Android for a very long time now. On my shortlist I have the Fairphone Gen 6 and the OnePlus 13. Other options are not possible. I don’t want Google or Samsung hardware, or any other manufacturers that make it difficult to unlock your bootloader.

One of the reasons is the freedom to install any app I want on my device, because it’s my device. But with the news about Google forcing developers to share their personal credentials it makes it difficult for me to go to Android. Basically Google is trying to kill sideloading. Should I even move to Android now or is Android with the limitation just like iOS?

  • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
    0·
    5 days ago

    I had no idea. Just like you don’t know what AirPlay is.

    When I didn’t know, I looked it up

    You seem to have forgotten about the steaming device/box similar to the AppleTV; one that doesn’t have ads on the home screen.

    Take any Google TV box and install a different launcher. Boom. Ads gone.

    I’m asking for a computer. Not a Chromebook or tablet.

    I dont know what you think a computer is, but they are.

    • AtariDump@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      4 days ago

      When I didn’t know, I looked it up

      Same

      Take any Google TV box and install a different launcher. Boom. Ads gone.

      I just buy an AppleTV. Boom, no ads.

      I dont know what you think a computer is, but they are.

      Can I run Microsoft Word on a Chromebook? Get more than six years worth of updates on a Chromebook? Find a tablet that hasn’t been abandoned by Google after four years.