- Developers of open-source Android apps, including NewPipe, have begun warning users about Google’s upcoming sideloading restrictions.
- NewPipe’s developers refuse to comply with Google’s proposed verification rules.
- The app has started to inform users of ways to bypass hurdles, including the proposed 24-hour lockout period before installing “unverified” apps.
Sideloading, or the ability to install apps using APK files from outside of the Google Play Store, has been fundamental to Android since its early days. But after almost two decades, Google wants to change it, citing security concerns from unverified apps. The Android developer community, however, has fiercely opposed Android’s new sideloading rules, arguing they run counter to practices that serve users’ best interests. Now, a slew of popular apps have started to resist the upcoming policy and are informing users about the alternatives.
NewPipe, one of the most popular open-source clients for watching YouTube without ads on Android, is starting to push back against Google’s proposed changes to sideloading. The developers behind it have recently started informing users of the upcoming policy change and how it impacts them, and that they won’t comply with the new rules.
