Google announced new rules for installing apps from sources outside the Play Store last week. Starting later this year, in order to sideload an app, you’ll have to read a handful of new warnings and, most controversially, wait a full 24 hours between confirming that you want the ability to sideload and actually gaining access to the option to sideload APKs from unverified developers.
We’ve been asking you, the Android Authority readers, how you feel about the upcoming changes. Some of you appreciate what Google’s doing for user security, and some of you don’t care at all — but unsurprisingly, the majority of you think the changes go too far.
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Nearly 8,000 votes have been cast in a poll about the new sideloading flow that’s been running on Android Authority since last week. Nearly half of all votes cast, 47.8%, are staunchly against the new workflow, voting that it “makes Android less open and hurts power users.”
The second-largest share of voters, 31.2%, are more sympathetic to Google’s cause, but still not fully on board, saying they “get what Google is doing,” but also that “it feels like overkill.”
About one in five survey respondents, 18.2%, actually like the change, choosing the option that says improved security is worth the added hassle. Finally, a handful of those polled — 2.8% — said that they don’t care one way or the other because they don’t sideload apps.
I don’t regularly sideload apps myself, either, but I think I’d side with those in the second-largest group. The change makes sense to me, but it’s easy to see how it burdens power users. Google’s changes are aimed at preventing would-be scammers from tricking less savvy users into installing harmful apps through unofficial channels; copious warnings and a mandatory waiting period should accomplish that goal, at least sometimes.
If you’re a regular sideloader and you don’t want to go through the waiting period, there’s a small silver lining: you’re still able to install APKs using ADB the same way you always could, no waiting required.
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