Sorry for my snark, if you saw it before I deleted it. I thought you had replied to a more recent comment from me where I included the instructions and the video link.

I understand you now, and no, I don’t necessarily trust Google when they say side loading is never going to go away, but it’s not going away right now.

And yet certain people on Lemmy are still saying it’s going away very soon, and downvote me when I say it’s not.

This is no longer accurate. Here are the important details.

Google:

We are introducing an advanced flow through which advanced users will be able to install an app from an unverified developer after acknowledging the potential risks and completing a one-time setup.

Android is introducing an advanced flow for power users who want to take educated risks to install apps from unverified developers. It’s a one-time setup for users to install apps from unverified developers after acknowledging the risks. It’s designed to protect user choice while adding in safeguards to protect users from being tricked or coerced into disabling security protections. Preview it in our video or blog post. Last updated: March 23, 2026

You can continue to use any alternative app store. For apps distributed from verified developers, users won’t see a change in their download experience at all. For apps distributed from unverified developers, users can enable advanced flow with a one-time setup. Last updated: June 8, 2026

I urge you to edit your post to clarify what’s really happening. I’ve been feeling sour about the whole situation for weeks, and was so relieved that there’s a solution besides wiping my phone.

I might install GrapheneOS anyway, at some point, but I no longer feel I must do so to keep using the 20 or so F-Droid apps I use. I was really not looking forward to wiping my only phone.

As soon as I can buy a solid Linux phone, I’m ditching Android and Google forever, but for now, I’m glad I can just keep doing what I’m doing. You just have to jump through a few hoops to enable installing and updating software from “unverified” developers, but whatever… It sucks to have to do it and wait 24 hours to complete the setup, but once you do, you can install any apps you want.

Downvoted for sharing the truth. Good job, Lemmy. 😑

Believe whatever you want, but this is a quote from Google:

Sideloading is fundamental to Android, and it’s not going anywhere. Our new developer identity requirements are designed to protect users and developers from bad actors, not to limit choice.

F-Droid and Obtanium are going away for normal android users.

Sure, and normal users haven’t even heard of them, so nothing’s lost.

It doesn’t sound like that website’s up to date.

this whole thing is absolutely about Google making more money.

F-Droid has like 4,000 apps on it. Let’s say all 4k are made by different developers. The $100 registration fee would net them $400,000. That’s a drop in their bucket. That’s like 1 second worth of their ad revenue. They would not cause this much of a community uproar for $400k. This is absolutely about preventing scam apps.

What’s really happening, I’m guessing, is Android gets a bad rap in other countries because of all the scams and people switch to iPhone. That does a lot more damage to their bottom line.

It’s also way too easy for some dumb 70 y/o congressperson or business executive to install spyware on their phone, and they are putting a speed bump in front of that.

I hate Google, but come on. They’re not trying to squeeze pennies out of open source developers. The fee is another speed bump to stop scammers from simply making another free developer account to spread they’re malware after they get banned.

Graphene for my Pixel 7 Pro, I guess. I have like 20 F-Droid apps. Google can fuck themselves. The masses won’t even notice a difference, sadly.

Update

Okay, I’ve been doing research instead of just listening to the buzz on Lemmy. Nothing is meaningfully going to change. You are free to use Obtanium or F-Droid to install any app you want, and FOSS developers don’t have to do a thing.

There’s just a roadblock that’s going to be introduced. You have to go through a little wizard that asks you if someone is pressuring you to enable side-loading, and then even when you say “yes, I want to move forward and enable side-loading”, you have to wait 24 hours, one time, and never again. And that’s only to install new apps. It’s not going to affect any ones you already have installed.

https://developer.android.com/developer-verification/guides/faq#advanced-flow

The video linked in this FAQ was very clear and demos the process.

I can’t believe the Lemmyverse let me believe that F-Droid and Obtanium were effectively going away for normal Android users, and that I must install something like GrapheneOS. 😑

I still might! Google can suck my asshole, but reinstalling a phone OS is a big deal. Not that it’s hard or particularly error prone, but I have to reinstall everything, and set everything back up, because I’m not gonna buy a new phone to put Graphene on it, and then do the standard Android migration process. I would have to wipe my phone and redo everything. That’s a chore that I probably won’t do if nothing is meaningfully changing for me. I can deal with “the advanced flow”.

Ummm India is part of America.