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From F-Droid to emulators, here's who's hit hardest by Android's new verification rules
(www.androidauthority.com)
this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2026
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Saving you a click:
We have phone manufacturers who offer unlocked boot loaders as a feature, but require two weeks or more of device ownership, registration using personally identifiable info for an online account, and many times don't even allow you to relock the boot loader. Despite all this hassle, these devices still get updated third party OS's with Lineage and eOS.
Anyone who was publishing to FDroid already is not going to ~~be annoyed~~ give up over the 24 hour scare screen for users. The most inconvenient aspect is that they can't use the same signing keys as a Google Play release, which they should never have been doing anyway. Its absurd that developers were using the same signing keys across all different distribution methods in the first place.
EDIT: Phrasing. Everything about Android is annoying.
The APK installation process is already more inconvenient than it should be, and now it will be getting even worse. There should be no difference in installing an APK via Google Play versus any other method.
The fact that the process will still have a 'security' warning each and every time after the 24 hour wait period shows that even for "advanced users" they want to make it as inconvenient as possible while claiming to still be keeping Android open.
You what. All you have to do is download the apk and then run it on the phone. HTF could it be any easier ?
Every APK installation from outside of the Play Store gives an installation warning. It's unnecessary and deliberately trying to make such installations seem less secure in comparison.
A beneficial warning would highlight the many privacy risks in installing apps from the Play Store instead of privacy-respecting alternatives from F-Droid.
Man the custom ROM life just reinforces my idea that stock Android is a fucking nightmare. I use Graphene and it just asks, "Hey, do you want to install this app (+ without network access?" Yes? Neat, it's on your phone now. The literal only roadblock is enabling installs from non-appstore apps like browser or files, which makes sense. No fear mongering, no developer mode, no wait a day to do it.