IIRC it is a cooldown to prevent less tech-savvy individuals from being tricked into installing malicious apps.

I don't think Google is doing this out of some egotistical obsession over "control," it's more that developers and FOSS enthusiasts are a vanishingly small fraction of their customer base.

There are plenty of problems with walled gardens, but IMO this isn't one of them.

As I understand they're being pressured into it by governments like the Brazilian government to prevent a widespread form of scam there, but of course they're happy to comply because it means they have more control as well

We'd all be safest in a cage but no one wants to live like that

I doubt they care about the Brazilian government. They're not going to lose customers there, the only alternative is iPhones and those are completely unaffordable in Brazil due to their local manufacturing laws. Only the rich few can afford one. They cost about twice as much as anywhere else and this is in a country where people have much less money.

So sanctioning Google means taking the smartphone away from 95% of their population. Which isn't going to happen.

Google is doing this because Google wants to.

> I don't think Google is doing this out of some egotistical obsession over "control," it's more that developers and FOSS enthusiasts are a vanishingly small fraction of their customer base.

It's also that that fraction is one they don't get any income from. We don't use Google accounts, Google apps or services etc.

So they don't get to track us as much except the few things you can't turn off in play services. Not everyone can work with custom rom (on those the new restriction obviously doesn't apply at all)

The worst problem with walled gardens is when everything is walled. Android is not supposed to be an "ecosystem", it is a damn OS on compatible hardware.

> It's more that developers and FOSS enthusiasts are a vanishingly small fraction of their customer base.

Maybe it's because direct installs are too hard to do already? Fortnite tried to go to that route and failed, if Fortnite couldn't make it who can?

And let's be real, I'm not going to accept any talk of "security" from Google when I type "chatgpt" in the search bar of the play store and I have an app with a counterfeit logo coming up at the top spot.

The first result in the app store if you search the name of the local public transport company is NOT the app for said public transport.

It's certainly true of the "average user" problem, but the stealth style update is concerning.

Or might it be when a cron job runs?

Why do I need a remote cron job to install an app on my phone?

The stated intention is to discourage scams. Bur this is exactly the same way Xiaomi makes their devices "unlockable" and in reality they just turned off their unlock server years ago and the button doesn't do anything, so you can't unlock.

Thanks green account created just for this comment calling someone else an outrage farmer!

No problem, i'm just here to help!