Yup! Sideloading is legally required to be available by the EU Digital Markets Act by March 2024. Both Apple and Android must comply!
Does apple comply? Just asking as I do not have an iphone and was under the impression its not possible.
side loading has always been available on apple Iphones, it’s just been locked exclusively down to their developer program for debugging and testing purposes and said installed apps are only valid for a limited amount of time. I expect it will use the same framework that the dev program uses, just not as restricted. That being said i can forsee them region locking it.
Ahh, so the only thing saving us from a corporate dominated future is laws…
Well I’m an American, I’m sure if they wanted, they could always make a EU version and US version. I’m a bit worried for the future.
Edit: Spelling
Android is open source, and there are many forks of it already. If they were to try this, those of us who care would just run a fork of Android.
Burning a new ROM is just as hard fora regular user as jailbreaking an iPhone, so practically it doesn’t make a difference if android is open-source or not.
Also, even though core android is OSS, what you and i run on our phones heavily depends on the play framework which is Google proprietary. Amazon has tried and failed to fork android before with its fire devices and that hasn’t worked.
For “official” Android products, maybe eventually.
In fact I can see a future where all computing/devices are locked down and become appliances, much like your tv or fridge.
You use them how you’re “meant to”. Sideloading? Programming? Tweaking? Why do you need to do that, are you a terrorist?
I hope we don’t get to that world, but for a while now I’ve been thinking it looks like a possible outcome.
a future where all computing/devices are locked down
And who would mandate and control such a requirement? And how would it be enforced? And why?
The only reason Apple is locked down as it is, is that Apple as the only manufacturer has absolute control over architecture, hardware and software.
Being open will always be a unique selling point by at least some competing companies, so there will continue to be some, absent a dictatorship rigorously controlling the manufacture and sale of such devices. But I think not even China has managed to accomplish that. Open devices are an absolute necessity if you want research and technological progress. And if the industry needs it, some of it will inevitably become available to citizens, too.
Nope, Android itself is not restrictive, it’s the extra add-ons by vendors that cause restrictions.
This is it.
I switched to Pixel phones ordered from Google. I can replace the software with whatever and not worry about breaking an eFuse warranty.
If they are going to restrict sideloading, they’ll probably restrict bootloader unlocking too. In the future, just make sure you research the bootloader unlockablility before buying a phone, because the next pixel might be locked.
As long as Android remains open-source, someone will always provide an alternative version if Google restricts the “official” OS
Good question. I believe OnePlus (or at least they used to), but I’m not sure.
I am using an OnePlus 8T and can confirm that, even if the bootloader does not come unlocked by default, it is very easy to unlock and flash and can also very easily go back (backup is needed because locking back will wipe the phone). Done myself.
I was surprised when some recent Android introduced the option for non-GPlay apps to auto-update on the background.
Maybe it’s just so that Google can avoid be called a monopoly, same with their support of Firefox.
EU also has some regulations in mind to force these vendors to allow installation of other apps, so we’ll see.
