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Re:Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is comin... by psii on Sunday January 25, 2026 @07:18AM (#46753466)
Correct, same in Germany. Here is a photo I shot last December in an electronics store. Aurora Store is now official, I guess.

https://imgur.com/a/v6zaRYo

Re:Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is comin... by wongarsu on Sunday January 25, 2026 @03:33PM (#46757866)
I don't think that picture indicates in any way that there are no Google Services on those phones. I've had multiple Chinese phones, and all of them had both their in-house app store (every brand seems to have their own) and also the Google Play Store. And obviously things like Google Play Services and Google Maps are installed too, way too many Android apps wouldn't work without them

This isn't even a China-exclusive strategy, Samsung does the same with their Galaxy Store.

Re:Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is comin... by psii on Sunday January 25, 2026 @06:56PM (#46760006)
Aurora Store is not a separate app store but is an alternative front-end to the Google Play Store. Combined with microG it should be possible to get all the Google apps.

There must be a reason why Aurora Store is being advertised, though. Why would they do that if they could just pre-install Google Play Store and standard Google applications.

Update: End of 2018, I bought a Huawei phone with GApps. I remember that two or three generations later, Huawei was not allowed to include GApps anymore.

Re:Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is comin... by deaux on Wednesday January 28, 2026 @07:07PM (#46803681)
Huawei is the exception due to specific sanctions on Huawei.