Google will allow users to sideload Android apps without verification

Re:Google will allow users to sideload Android apps without ... by AshamedCaptain on Thursday November 13, 2025 @02:24PM (#45919344)

> F-Droid compiles all APKs on its store, and signs them with its own keys. Apps on F-Droid are not signed by the developers of those apps. They're signed by F-Droid, and thus can only be updated through and by F-Droid. F-Droid does not just distribute APKs uploaded by random people, it distributes APKs that F-Droid compiled themselves.

For most programs I use, they just publishing the developer's built (and signed) APK. They do their own build in parallel and ensure that the result is the same as the developer's build (thanks to reproducible builds), but they still end up distributing the developer's APK.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google will allow users to sideload Android apps without ... by bogwog on Thursday November 13, 2025 @02:31PM (#45919443)

Can you give some examples? I've heard that's a thing, but I'm not familiar with any apps that actually pull it off (reproducible builds are difficult to achieve)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google will allow users to sideload Android apps without ... by AshamedCaptain on Thursday November 13, 2025 @03:09PM (#45919868)

Reproducible builds may be hard to achieve, but that doesn't mean you don't have a list of such builds long enough to crash your browser: https://verification.f-droid.org/verified.html

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google will allow users to sideload Android apps without ... by crumpled on Thursday November 13, 2025 @04:40PM (#45920967)

Weird to have a page like that if a human can't use it. Needs some pagination, f-droid!

It's like we're supposed to save the page and grep it or something. Doesn't work in my Firefox.

[ Parent | on HN ]