“sideloading process”
I hate it. It’s just setting up software I own on a computer I own. It’s literally just “installing”.
I hate it too but tbf its descriptive of what it originally meant: sticking something into the side of your computer (edit: or any device) and loading software from that.
The term isn’t invented by Android and didn’t have any negative connotation originally. That’s all Android’s doing.
edit: what’s with the downvotes? I’m stating fact and I’m definitely not defending Android in any way.
edit2: I’m just trying to raise awareness of the history of this and other terms, and how Android and other entities sometimes hijack them for their own purposes.
I “sideload” apps onto my watch because it’s done entirely from my phone. I don’t need a PC to put apps on my phone, so it’s just “installing”.
I don’t need a PC to put apps on my phone
I was refering to the origins of that term. “Computer” as in any device with an OS.
If you are download the software on a separate device, and transferring it over, via adb or something, I’d call that sideloading.
If you’re downloading it directly on your phone and installing it, I’d call that installing, regardless of what Google and Apple preferred i call it.
No, that’s downloading.
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It is not descriptive as you claim.
It is circumventing roadblocks put in place, but it is still downloading and installing.
Some people now call it sideloading, yes, and with normal language I’d say accept this mistaken usage as one definition, the linguist way.
But since this is a political fight, i will not accept when anyone follows this big-tech framing of “this is not the right way to install an app. Here’s a scary word for it.”
Please don’t participate in this cultural fight to make something normal sound strange.
It is not descriptive as you claim.
It’s in the wikipedia article I linked.
It is circumventing roadblocks put in place
But that’s what I’m trying to explain and nobody seems to get: that’s the meaning Android put into the term. Long before that, it just used to describe “the process of transferring files between two local devices”.
One more time: Android adopted this term and made it into something “bad”. And I fucking hate that, and everything that entails right now, just like the rest of you.
But the term sideloading is older than Android, and originally did not have this negative connotation, quite the opposite.
Neither wikipedia nor Android are the arbiters for how words get used. I am claiming that we should shun Android’s definition since it is self-serving/and deteimental to society.
See for reference these two definitions on wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sideload
Anyone using the 2nd definition without criticizing it is supporting big tech. It is not a high bar to ask people to think critically about the words they use.
Android is becoming garbage.
Yeah Lets hope linux phones pick up speed because of this. Having a fully free and open os for mobile would be great but I fear it is still a few years away.
It’s rapidly getting better.
What we need are phones with hardware that has full mainline kernel support. That way distros would just have to ship a dwvice tree file if that is not upstream yet, not a completely custom kernel with hundreds of patches that becomes trash shortly after buying due to lack of updates.
pmOS on Fairphone 6 can’t come fast enough
Now if only there were used fairphones on the market ;_;
I can’t wait for the stable release!
can you unlock bootloader in a easy way or you have to do in their website?
🌍🧑🚀🔫
It definitely has gotten worse with every update for awhile. They keep taking things that made Android great away.
We need an alternative. Linux to the rescue I dare say.
I think a de-googled android would be good. Android at its core (Android Open Source Project) is actually a good project from a user-experience point of view. the app navigation and all that makes a whole lot of sense. We’d lose that if we switch to pure linux.
just google has to be entirely removed from the operating system.
Happy lemmy anniversary, its always lovely to see you around sunshine :)
Thank you Cris! Here’s to 2 years! Have a slice of the cake!
Ooooh cake ☺️☺️
Have a wonderful day/night! ❤️
indeed , it’s becoming Apple.
It was something like 70% of all malware originates from the google play store. Yet to make you safe you can’t download apps outside of google play.
Lol.
It’s not to make you safe. It is to Co troll what you download. As a side effect, you also are restricted to install cracked apps e.g. Revanced apps.
Nobody cared about viruses and nobody will. They just state so for normies to believe and agree.
Oh trust me buddy I know.
Its a shit process. If they’d just get rid of the 24h countdown it be bearable. But thats exactly the tactic, isn’t it, make it as shitty as you can, then you dial it back just a notch so people feel like that is better, even though it is still worse than the original process.
Does changing your system time work?
No. It likely looks for external timekeeping from a carrier.
It also only gives you a 1 hour window when the 24 are done to turn on sideloading. So set an alarm.
It didn’t on my phone.
Its just Linux too. This is a very stupid thing and will only accelerate true linux phones becoming popular.
I was wondering when this would come. Even popped open DuckDuckGo and searched for Android news, yet this completely escaped the radar.
I’ve already removed the verifier and safetycore apps and installed stubs in their place. I also already had Shizuko and now I have gained root access on top of it without unlocking the bootloader.
Google may fuck themselves.
Is this a good solution doing what you describe? I might need to try it on my wife’s Pixel 9 w/stock OS.
I have not used this particular repo but from what I read, it does what it should be doing, replace the real hidden apps with placeholder stubs that have version 2000000 or something to that effect. You should be good with this one. Make sure to read all of the readme carefully, particularly the uninstall methods.
that’s why i installed graphene on my phone and turned off updates on my tablet so i’m still on android 15
https://lineageos.org/Developer-Verification/
How does this affect LineageOS and its users?
TL;DR: This will not affect LineageOS directly. But it may affect users running the stock ROM on their device.
When the stock ROM is installed on a certified device, package installation will be gated by the package “AndroidDeveloperVerification”, which will check against the developer’s registered/verified signing identity. Google is providing an “advanced flow” opt in for power users to install unverified-developer apps after acknowledging risk and waiting a full day. This is a one-time toggle to disable verification, not something you have to redo every time you wish to install a package.
https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/03/android-developer-verification.html
Shit like this is why I run lineage OS and there’s a very good chance that my next phone is going to be running post-market OS and not Android at all.
How is this legal? Serious question, how can it be legal for a company to dictate what I install on my own computing devices?
Dobtngive me the security crap, that is just a cheap excuse
Wait till you hear about iPhone!
DMCA section 1201, that’s how it’s legal.
If we removed that specific section, so much stupid tech shit would be solved
Oh, I forgot that was happening now. Because I’m not on a closed OS and can download whatever I want. You can be too, fuck Google.
Google has declared that they intend to stop making a useful mobile operating system.
Anybody who has an opinion about these things and doesn’t just accept everything Big Tech throws at them saw (something like this) developing for years, nay decades, and had plenty of time to move on. So who exactly “hates it” now? I suspect it’s the typical Android App developer who always has one eye on monetization and is therefore willing to accept a lot of shit from the OS they’re devleoping for until it affects them directly.
Not that I don’t agree with them.
and had plenty of time to move on
Sorry, do you mean developers or users, and where exactly do you think one can move to? IPhones? GrapheneOS is still restricted to Pixels and while the Motorolla collab is starting up they already announced that they start with flagship type phones, meaning expensive.
These are by far not the only options.
Wait, you didn’t even mention LineageOS? Since it doesn’t come with Gapps/Playstore it’s unaffected by any of this.
