this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
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I wonder what this will mean for Aurora and Fdroid etc.
This is my immediate first thought seeing this. This fucking sucks. Part of the whole benefit of something like LineageOS or e (OS?) was being able to use Fdroid to stay away from Google as much as possible. Now this is going to potentially make things weird.
doesn't do anything to f-droid, but probably kills aurora a bit. the developer can prevent their app from being sideloaded. why would one prevent that if they are distributing via f-droid too?
I hope f-droid has nothing to do with Google play store, thought they are their own store without connection to Google.
Well, both will be unable to install certain types of apps.
Aaaaand now I'm carrying around a laptop again, at least mini pcs are tiny now, maybe a small handheld would do...
if any of this shit hinders me, I'll get a dumb phone and the cheapest iphone available for manditory work-based things and say so-long to being a mobile OS user.
I recently started carrying a GPD microPC because of this bullshit.
It's like a very bulky phone. Pocketable but kinda chonk. Thumb typing kinda thing.
But it runs Fedora + gnome with no problems.
My phone is now just for quick stuff and a way to make a WiFi hotspot.
Just FYI, no, F-Droid will not be impacted.
Links in this comment explain, they are incorrect about how F-Droid works.
That doesnt appear to be true, the restriction seems to be on apps being installed from file managers, web browsers, messaging, etc.
F-droid and the like are not part of that list.
This still isn't good, but it doesnt stop you from having F-droid manage your messaging apps it would seem.
Edit: If you're down voting because you think its using the same method as a file manager as the user that replied to me, this is incorrect. This is also an issue going back several versions.
F-Droid uses a session installer method for 3rd party app stores, it does not use the same method as a file manager.
For an article about a similar issue brought up by similar restrictions in previous updates, you can refer to this article:
https://www.androidauthority.com/android-15-restricted-settings-sideloading-3481098/
You can also refer to this thread in the F-Droid forums which covers this as well, from 2 1/2 years ago:
https://forum.f-droid.org/t/sideloading-restrictions-or-removal-in-future-how-it-effects-fdroid/21089/10
Which also includes a merged discussion from the last time this came up 9 months ago.
F-Droid has been using the session installer method for quite some time.
For what it's worth I use aurora store and have already noticed some apps refusing to open/work unless I reinstall them from the play store.
How did you install aurora store?
I'm curious because ive seen no issues with F-Droid (just had a few updates actually), and the F-Droid team have commented on this sort of approach before, including the method being used for installation.
I don't use aurora, so I'm not overly familiar.
Apk from their gitlab page
I wonder if it is because you added that way, rather than from f-Droid or something.
No idea. If I had a spare still running android (trying out postmarketos on a few devices) I'd like to give it a try. Maybe I'll spin up a VM.
What apps?
I don't think so, I actually updated it via f-droid before but resorted to sideloading the apk myself for faster updates.
I've noticed it so far for my apps: Tilla (subscription manager), ChatGPT, Poe
But how do you install F-Droid after, say, a factory reset because you had to troubleshoot something?
No idea. Play Store then update itself via its at store rev? Preinstalled on a ROM? Via adb?
That said, all the link refers to is a few sample permissions (which would not include F-Droid from that list) and only via certain methods being downloaded. Or they have it wrong and its "opened from".
Its still shitty, but as of now I'm not sure if there is any impact to installing F-Droid, but I can say the method of installation has complied with previous versions of googles "protections" (as in forced limitations) and that appears to continue to be true.
F-Droid uses the same way to install packages as the file manager does.
F-Droid uses Session Installer, which is an "app store" method.
This is not a new issue:
https://www.androidauthority.com/android-15-restricted-settings-sideloading-3481098/