Google has news on what you will need to do for still being able to sideload apps:

[crazyeddie@mastodon.social]

@TimWardCam @tedmielczarek @grote Looks to me like you'd disable this silly stuff on all the phones you manage and call it good...you're just back to the situation as it exists.

The real pain here is that people install fdroid from the play store thinking they can then install apps but they won't be able to without "disabling security". Other than that it seems like it's a one time annoyance -- less than if you just load lineage or something to begin with.

[flower@pony.social]

@grote Eh, not a fan of giving Google biometrics. The 1 day wait is kinda -- petty, but OK -- the rest I sorta expected.

[dertizen@mastodon.social]

@grote that is trash- like the whole #DIDay is a choaching session but for reclaim privacy not taking them.
> You Son isnt allowed to Guide you anymore, take you Candycrush and watch our holy ADs AND tell me EVERYTHING YOU DO with this lil Device, ma'am

[chuff@bark.wolp.chat]

I suspect they'll find there's actually quite a few that will put up with this, after all the average Android user only installs from the Play Store, those that are using F-Droid or side loading are actively choosing to avoid Google, and I don't think this'll be much of a barrier to them, I know I'll jump through these hoops without batting an eye.

[gabboman@gabboman.xyz]

I can send my famiky a link to an apk and they can install it.

Now its no longer an option

[katherine_montalto@zirk.us]

@serk @grote so I have a degoogled os, no Google play store. I'm still going to be able to get apps right? This is just a problem for play store?

[2something@transfem.social]

@grote@chaos.social While this is not good, it is a lot less bad than I was expecting. I thought they were going to make it so you have to unlock the bootloader and install a distro to install apps Google doesn't approve of, which would make it unavailable on the vast majority of phone.

[glennmagusharvey@app.wafrn.net]

The bigger problem is that a number of those devs are gonna stop work on those apps because of this.

Fuck Google.

[barefootstache@en.osm.town]

@terminaltilt @valpackett @old_angry_queer @grote

Am I missing a new Android feature, can one sign into the device with biometrics after rebooting?

[lookwhatthecatdraggedin@mastodon.social]

@ziclaud I hope one day we'll reach a stage when locked bootloaders will be considered illegal

[Gæst]

@Dequei @stw @grote i'm on the FLX1S from furios and not looking back.

[marinheiro@ciberlandia.pt]

@grote Does this automatically kill off Aurora Store access?

[_chris_real@kolektiva.social]

@grote

Long live DuckDuckGo. Long live Vivaldi.

The open sources are out there . . .

(Also, big praise for Lenovo's ThinkPad, who said to Microsoft, "let's call the whole thing off.")

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stevenstonetech_lenovo-is-switching-the-default-os-on-thinkpads-activity-7430983261776109568-g_4-

[bangskij@climatejustice.social]

@grote guess I'm never buying a new phone ever again

[akamran@indieweb.social]

@jon_bon same here. If I can't do that, then there's really no point in not buying an iPhone. I wonder if Samsung and other Android phone makers have been asked about how this will impact their sales?

@grote @fdroidorg @IzzyOnDroidOrg @accrescent

[seq@infosec.exchange]

@nazokiyoubinbou @Razemix @FifiSch @grote Okay, I'm sorry, but you can't really say that installing LineageOS is easy and "just a few clicks". For most people that. Is. Not. Easy. I've installed it on three different OnePlus phones and one Samsung tablet and that was an extremely conscious effort. You need to read the documentation really carefully and know what to ignore in it. Installing the SDK is not self-explanatory, you have to make sure it's properly installed with plenty of pitfalls along the way. You need to make sure to have a USB cable that will work to get the phone recognised (if you even know that that's a factor you need to consider). Don't even get me started on the mess with the Samsung device and running Odin _several_ times before getting the patch applied. Unlocking bootloader, booting into recovery, following all those steps. That is not something you can expect people who aren't _really committed_ to do. Add to that the huge mistake LineageOS recently made where you had to reinstall everything, and based on pretty lackluster documentation regarding what you actually had to do and what you could skip (since it wasn't as device-specific as they led you to believe). Or the rather annoying upgrade process when bumping a major version number (eg. 21 -> 22)

Installing GrapheneOS via WebUSB was surprisingly easy, but don't make the mistake that this is something a lot of people will even dare to try. "Just install LineageOS" is unfortunately not a sensible thing to say. It's not too different from saying that anyone could just replace the brake discs on their car on their own if they want, "it's just some bolts". I'd love it if there was some easy fix for us, but this is a huge problem for all of us.

[nev@status.nevillepark.ca]

@grote at least (for now) they say a device PIN is an alternative to biometrics. (I refuse to enable biometric authentication on my phone.)

[dalias@hachyderm.io]

@nev @grote Yeah it's just whatever your primary authentication method for sensitive configuration actions is.

[Gæst]

@resuna @Umbreon @LexYeen @grote

Backloading, with no reacharound

[dalias@hachyderm.io]

@grote This is still bad, and I don't want to downplay that, but it's a one-time thing users of F-Droid or other non-Play app sources will do once when setting up their phones and be done with. It's what I expected, and nowhere near as bad as being completely locked out or forced to go thru a waiting period/exemption process each time.

Still, we should continue to push back for a better outcome. Like dropping this nonsense entirely.