There are no legitimate arguments against sideloading.
this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2023
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The only legit argument is that you can install a very malicious app.
This would be bad if Google and Apple didn't already allow malicious apps in their stores already.
Google already has play protect, but it doesn't do shit. If Google legitimately made play protect work, then the risks would be 0.
All of the pros outweigh the cons, though. Can't even tell you how many times an app has updated and completely broke shit. Being able to sideload the APK to downgrade to a previous version is quite literally a lifesaver.
I think there's a bit of language confusion in the article there ('search engine' etc), but I'm very interested to see if they make Google allow other app stores to act like first-class citizens, instead of heavily restricting them, even if the user does everything they can to allow them to install and maintain apps.
As for Apple... I would probably have been an iPhone owner long ago if they weren't so heavily restricted. I like their products, just not their refusal to allow apps that didn't come from their store.
But android has sideloading since forever... Although I agree apple needs to change.
I thought Google already allowed it. I've been able to sideload on my Japanese Android 10 device with no issues. Did they lock it, or is it being removed by the networks/manufacturers?
Probably a provision in place to prevent Google from locking Android down.
I have my issues with both ios and Android, but the fact that I have to jailbreak in order to sideload on ios is probably the one thing that's stopped me from going back to an iphone.