Just adds additional steps when installing APKs
Just adds additional steps when installing APKs
Posted Sep 4, 2025 12:58 UTC (Thu) by Susko3 (guest, #179168)Parent article: New restrictions on Android app sideloading
The rules written here only seem to apply to distributing APKs, so I think local installs via ADB or Android Studio will be unaffected. (Imagine if you open Android Studio, and see "Please upload your government-issued ID to test your app on your device."). So this will just add an additional step for installing APKs not verified by Google – install it with ADB via a computer, or use something like Shizuku to get local ADB access on the device itself.
Instead of increasing security, this will push scammers to use the less secure, but more cumbersome to victims, ADB vector. Less secure because I think APKs installed that way are not scanned by Google Play Protect.