iOS 17 will reportedly set the stage for sideloading apps on iPhone

Re:iOS 17 will reportedly set the stage for sideloading apps... by lbotos on Monday April 17, 2023 @11:01AM (#35601815)

To support sideloading do they have to "Relax control" though?

I think the fear is "sideloaded apps can do bad things" and my answer is make the OS better and more clearly manage bad things?

What are the bad things we imagine a sideloaded app could do? Like it still has to follow the platform APIs right? It would have to ask for perms? Sure, it could have egregious tracking or spam, or hostile ads, but app store apps already have this??

I'm genuinely asking: What risk am I missing?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 17 will reportedly set the stage for sideloading apps... by willis936 on Monday April 17, 2023 @11:05AM (#35601891)

The risk of big companies like Meta requiring users to sideload in order to use their service. To me the answer is obvious: don't use services provided by Meta. They can choose to race to the bottom all they want. I welcome the freedom to use my phone the way I want to.

If bad actors choose to misbehave don't blame the medium they're misbehaving on. This line of thinking is similar to negotiating with terrorists.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:iOS 17 will reportedly set the stage for sideloading apps... by clcaev on Monday April 17, 2023 @07:34PM (#35608066)

> don't use services provided by Meta

There are insurmountable network effects. Individually, I have no bargaining power.

I'm must use WhatsApp on my phone if I want to know if when child's swim practice is moved/canceled/etc.

There is only one swim team in the area. Getting other parents to use Signal ain't happening unless the coach requires it. The coach isn't moving to Signal unless parents already use it.

This is just one concrete example. There are plenty of organizations land-locked to Facebook for the same reasons; dropping Facebook is tantamount to collapsing the community.

[ Parent | on HN ]