From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

I pity people who won't be able to sideload because of Google copying
Apple's anti-consumer Draconian control over your personal device.

To that end, I'd like to put, in one place, the answer to this question:
Q: What is Google doing to hinder sideloading by normal people?
A: ?

In a recent thread, I provided an adb script which slides out an app from itself, in order to change the installer name, which Google added checks
for in their SDKs freely distributed to developers, so prevent sideloading.
Newsgroups: comp.mobile.android,misc.phone.mobile.iphone,alt.comp.os.windows-10,comp.sys.mac.advocacy
Subject: Re: Find out which apps are available in which countries
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2026 06:11:01 -0300
Message-ID: <119amj4$svl$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com>
:: -----------------------------------------------------------------------
:: adbreinstall.bat
:: This script will fix one of Google's attempts at stopping sideloading
:: when apps have included a new Google SDK which insists that the app was
:: installed by the Google Play Store and by no other mechanisms out there.
:: -----------------------------------------------------------------------
:: What this re-installer does is take an already-installed app that has
:: an installer name that is NOT the Google Play Store, and it simply
:: changes that installer name to be the Google Play Store instead.
:: -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Last night, I fixed another of Google's attempts to prevent sideloading.
<https://i.postimg.cc/2jQX10Bc/aurora-shizuku01.jpg>

What other attempts is Google doing to hinder sideloading by normal people?
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Maria Sophia wrote:

To that end, I'd like to put, in one place, the answer to this question:
Q: What is Google doing to hinder sideloading by normal people?
A: ?

In another thread today, we answered the question to the best of my current knowledge, of what friction Google is adding to the normal loading process.

Newsgroups: comp.mobile.android
Subject: Re: PSA: Split APKs & sideloading: What works outside of Google
Play?
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2026 10:21:24 -0600
Message-ID: <119jcu4$2auk$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com>

Arno Welzel wrote:

PSA: Split APKs & sideloading: What works outside of Google Play?

More and more, Google is making normal loading, aka sideloading, harder.

Why "more and more"? Please be more specific.

Hi Arno,

I get it you defend Google with every breath, but when you do that, you
need to understand that I back up every single claim I make, with facts.

On XDA Developers, we counted over a dozen *new* points of friction Google
has recently *added* to the task of normal loading (aka sideloading).

<https://xdaforums.com/t/ongoing-january-2027-googles-plan-to-end-sideloading-on-android.4756353/page-16>

Some of those, like the 24-hour waiting period are scheduled to go into
effect, but all of them are designed to add friction to normal loading.

I pity people who won't be able to sideload because of Google copying
Apple's anti-consumer Draconian control over your personal device.

Yes, but this is not now but will start in the future. So what exactly
did Google in the *past* to make sideloading harder?

Otherwise it is not "more and more".

Oh, I see where your confusion lies. You need more data. Current data.
You are unaware of the sideloading friction employed at this very moment.

You've never run into "this", but I have, and so have many other people:
<https://i.postimg.cc/MpKvmcgG/aurora-actual-installer.jpg>

The reason I pity people who don't know what we know is this solves it:
<https://i.postimg.cc/2jQX10Bc/aurora-shizuku01.jpg>

For example, AFAIK, native Android doesn't have an app that will install
split APKs, outside the Google Play Store app, which can install them.

There is no need to use split APKs at all. If a software developers or vendors want to distribute apps, they can just provide APKs as usual.
Google did not remove the option for that.

Google did effectively remove the option to upload traditional all-in-one
APKs for new apps (mandating the Android App Bundle / AAB format since
August 2021). <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_App_Bundle>

Yet, almost every app on the Google Play repository, is a split APK.
How do you install that split APK without using the Google Play Store app?

You don't. Split APKs are specifically for Google Play. Nearly every
other app store doesn't use them - like F-Droid or direct downloads.

Google's server-side system generates split APKs automatically from the developer's submitted AAB. Therefore, a developer can't just choose to hand
out a monolithic APK if they rely on the Play Store's delivery mechanism.

Besides, split APKs are easy to work with if you're technical, like we are, since they're just an added hassle given tools have arisen to compensate
for the lack of a native Android split-apk tool available to the user.

1. adb install-multiple base.apk config*.apk (split + spoof)
2. Aurora installer (split + spoof)
3. InstallerX-Revived (split + spoof)
4. Universal Installer (split + spoof)
5. InstallWithOptions (split + spoof)
6. SAI (split but not spoof)
7. Muntashirakon App Manager (split but not spoof)

My point was not that it was impossible, but that I pity people who don't
know what we know when they try to install an archived split APK bundle.

It's just yet another point of friction Google has already added, today.

Or, what if you have a split APK that you downloaded from the Google Play
Store without using the Google Play Store app to obtain it, or, what if you >> have the split APK in your archives, perhaps saved during a backup/restore?

Just don't use Google Play - problem solved.

That's kind of like saying you can avoid being seen by Flock cameras.
Just don't go anywhere.

Yes, this will be harder in the future, but not impossible.

Actually, these tactics are making it impossible to use NewPipe, which I
use every day, so they are making it impossible to sideload, in effect.
<https://newpipe.net>
--
On Usenet, we learn from others as readily as we teach them ourselves.
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Maria Sophia, 2026-09-28 19:55:

I pity people who won't be able to sideload because of Google copying
Apple's anti-consumer Draconian control over your personal device.

To that end, I'd like to put, in one place, the answer to this question:
Q: What is Google doing to hinder sideloading by normal people?
A: ?

Nothing. You can still sideload what you want.

However in the near future apps which are not registered at Google Play
by a registered developer account, will not be installed any longer - no
matter where they come from.

But even this can be circumvented, even though it is quite cumbersome:

<https://keepandroidopen.org/>

[...]> :: This script will fix one of Google's attempts at stopping sideloading

:: when apps have included a new Google SDK which insists that the app was
:: installed by the Google Play Store and by no other mechanisms out there.

What "new Google SDK" do you refer to?
--
Arno Welzel
https://arnowelzel.de
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Arno Welzel wrote:

To that end, I'd like to put, in one place, the answer to this question:
Q: What is Google doing to hinder sideloading by normal people?
A: ?

Nothing. You can still sideload what you want.

Hi Arno,

I have grandchildren who say stuff like that which they "think" is correct,
but that's because they have no idea what they have not been exposed to.

I get it you have no idea what Google is doing, now, today, to add friction
to sideloading, but there are those of us who run into that friction daily.

Basically, most of us are aware Google is adding many (many!) different
points of friction such that only the most technical people will sideload.

However in the near future apps which are not registered at Google Play
by a registered developer account, will not be installed any longer - no matter where they come from.

The fact that Google is adding more than a dozen distinct points of
friction to the sideloading process means you have to discuss all of them.

Not just one.

To help you, I've listed all of the ones I know about, in this XDA post.
<https://xdaforums.com/t/ongoing-january-2027-googles-plan-to-end-sideloading-on-android.4756353/post-90757160>

But even this can be circumvented, even though it is quite cumbersome: <https://keepandroidopen.org/>
[...]> :: This script will fix one of Google's attempts at stopping sideloading

You are wrong.
Dead wrong.

You're so wrong that I'm already tired of explaining to you again & again
what you should know, but your brain refuses to accept any level of detail.

I really wish you'd stop being like VanguardLH and simply accept that what
you "think" you know isn't all there is to know about any given topic.

When this new requirement goes into effect, we will PERMANTLY LOSE APPS!
<https://newpipe.net>

What's YOUR workaround fix to the permanent loss of those apps, Arno?

:: when apps have included a new Google SDK which insists that the app was >> :: installed by the Google Play Store and by no other mechanisms out there.

What "new Google SDK" do you refer to?

Geezus Arno. Seriously. Every person using Aurora Store knows about this. Everyone using adb to install apps, knows about this.
As does everyone using Muntashirakon App Manager to install their APKs.

Why don't YOU know about this?

Here's a cumbersome workaround in Aurora Store that Google forces upon us.
<https://xdaforums.com/t/app-6-0-aurora-store-open-source-google-play-client.3739733/post-90759074>

Here's a cumbersome "workaround" in Muntashirakon App Manager, too.
<https://xdaforums.com/t/discussion-muntashirakon-app-manager.4674128/post-90758982>

And, here's a general workaround, using adb to overcome the new friction.
<https://xdaforums.com/t/why-new-errors-when-i-sideload-apps-from-the-google-play-store-repository-usually-via-aurora-store-on-my-heavily-de-googled-non-rootable-usa-galaxy.4799683/post-90753734>

Think about this fact before you respond.
a. Those are my posts to an expert's group of Android users
b. Not a single expert disputes a single point in all those posts
c. And yet, you do?

Methinks you're going to have to accept I know something about this issue.
--
Most people believe that whatever it is that they know, must be everything.
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