Re:Total Commander forced to stop letting you install APKs
by thrtythreeforty on Wednesday May 18, 2022 @12:43PM
(#31424868)
I'm very glad the PackageManager API is getting more full-featured - I always welcome parity between Play and any other app store in userland.
That said, that is a really obtuse set of steps you need to go through to enable accessibility features for an app. That's the point, of course, but it is so user unfriendly that it's a little ridiculous.
"Many apps that let you download and open arbitrary files use this installation method, as it’s easier to simply hand off installation to the system Package Installer, which responds to intents to view and install user-acquired APK files. Apps that are sideloaded via browsers, mail clients, and messaging apps usually use this method, hence they’ll be subjected to Android 13’s restrictions."
"Apps can use Android’s new setPackageSource() API to tell the system that the app came from a user-acquired APK via the parameters PACKAGE_SOURCE_LOCAL_FILE or PACKAGE_SOURCE_DOWNLOADED_FILE. This can be used by apps implementing the session-based package installation API to trigger the same behavior when sideloading arbitrary APK files. For example, the Files by Google app uses the session-based API to install apps even though it isn’t an app store. In order to protect users, Files by Google could use the setPackageSource() API to tell the system Package Installer when apps come from user-acquired APKs, thus subjecting those apps to Android 13’s restrictions."
From: https://blog.esper.io/android-13-sideloading-restriction-har...