Comment by oneplane
9 months ago
Do ordinary people side load at all? Assuming most people use the phone to do something else, and not for the sake of using the phone, after you get the apps you want/need, ordinary people are likely to just do the same thing/consume the same apps over and over.
Yes, my health relies on it.
I sideload a glucose monitor app that's not available through Playstore (it's FOSS and health is a tricky area with liability).
It's a fantastic app and the ability to sideload it is a major reason I use Android over iOS.
I also sideload a patched app of the Dexcom glucose reader OEM's shitty app to allow the data to be read by the better (sideload) FOSS app.
https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip
https://www.patreon.com/byod/about?
Ok I'm not an ordinary person, I guess, but if I was I'd still use those apps and I know people who are ordinary and do so.
If I haven't prohibited him, I am pretty sure my 11 years old son would have installed dozens of pirated games and apps of dubious provenance on his phone.
But I am pretty sure that like any other teenagers since the beginning of time he obeys me, and has only rooted his phone for educational purposes.
His friends, though, I am not so sure.
When I was his age I had an old Android phone, but I couldn't play LAN with my friends because I couldn't sideload nor buy the game due to parental controls. I borrowed an extra phone from my friend and sideloaded the game there and we could play.
Yes. We download an apk file. And then install it after it giving it permission that it is ok to install unverified apks.
Some of the more savvy ordinary people even export apps as apk for other phones.
A lot of my non-techy friends have a sideloaded copy of spotify/youtube to get premium features for free. I think they just blindly follow some guide they find on tiktok.
Spotify uses something like the Play Integrity API to prevent access using modded APKs.
There are still many modded apks that work. My friends still use them.
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I installed fdroid on a friends phone and they use it install newpipe and keep it up to date, without having a tech savy friend around to download the apk relase from github.
They "sideload" apps on desktop, which we usually call "installing software". They would probably do it on a phone, too.
This!
It's crazy how we act like phones are dramatically different than other computers. An average computer user can go to a website, click "download" and then we think the average phone user can't do the exact same thing? It's the same people! They might be used to downloading from one location but it would be laughable to think they couldn't do the normal thing too
(To clarify, I mean apps. Things like GrapheneOS you're going to run into the same issues as expecting my grandma to install Linux. Might be doable but it isn't quite there yet)
GrapheneOS can be purchased preinstalled on devices and https://grapheneos.org/install/web is far easier than installing a desktop OS.
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I believe that the official DJI app required side loading on Android. Not sure if it still does.
Majority of users don't sideload any apps according to:
https://zimperium.com/blog/the-hidden-risks-of-sideloading-a...
You say that like 18% is just some rounding error.
About 1 in 5 users sideload?! That's not something to ignore
A majority do not, but the article characterizes it more positively:
Sideloading is a fairly popular practice. Our research indicates that 18.3% of mobile users globally engage in sideloading. In some regions, such as the Asia Pacific, the impact is as high as 43%.
A lot of Chinese apps still do. Mostly cause I guess they don't allow Google play store in China (? I think it's blocked, can't quite remember for sure)
> Do ordinary people side load at all?
Yes, usually when somebody calls them, pretends to be from the security department of their bank, and asks them to install an app to "catch the hacker who just stole $2000 from your account in the act."
In countries where Android is popular (not the US), this is an extremely common scam vector.
even though I've never seen this method in action, I have thought of it and it could be effective.
Everyone should side load the epic games, just to stick it to the MAN/Google
Installing the epic games launcher is just sticking it to yourself.
I love steam, but epic is very user hostile.
Too bad Steam doesn't have an app for actual mobile games. I wonder if there is an agreement between them and Google. I heard there was one with Blizzard from the Epic vs Apple/Google case.
I've only side loaded my own app through Android Studio
edit: which I'm not even sure if that counts as side loading
it does
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