Requirement for developer verification for sideloading

[John Dallman]

I see this news story: 

https://9to5google.com/2025/08/25/android-apps-developer-verification/

When will there be more detail on exactly what this means?  

The workflow I'm immediately concerned about is testing the mathematical modelling libraries I produce. I don't produce any kind of app with them. Instead, I use a command-line test harness which I run in the ADB shell. I get the test harness, test data, and so on onto devices with "adb push" and get results back from them with "adb pull", or by capturing their stdout/stderr by redirecting stdout and stderr of the "adb shell" command. If this workflow is going to become unusable, I'll need to re-implement my testing. 

Thanks,

John  

[enh]

i'd _assume_ this only applies to apks (and thus `adb install`, but
not `adb push`), but i'll try to find out...

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[John Dallman]

Thanks!

John

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[enh]

i'm told this should only affect PackageManager apis used by "apps"
like the Play Store to install other apps.

so even `adb install` should continue to work, and `adb push`/`adb
shell` of native test executables should be completely unaffected.

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[John Dallman]

That's splendid, thanks very much. 

It would be a good idea to get that added to https://developer.android.com/developer-verification/guides, because some commentators are saying that this change makes Android into a closed system.

Thanks,

John  

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[mic _]

>so even `adb install` should continue to work, 

That's good news, since we use that quite a lot for internal test apps and prototypes.

Just curious: doesn't allowing sideloading through adb leave a fairly large hole in the sideloading defense? It's a bit more work for a fraudster to get their victim to install adb on their computer, but I wouldn't rule it out.

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[Dime Bar]

Thanks for the information 

That makes life easier

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[John Dallman]

> Just curious: doesn't allowing sideloading through adb leave a fairly large hole 

> in the sideloading defense? It's a bit more work for a fraudster to get their victim 

> to install adb on their computer, but I wouldn't rule it out.

My impression is that people who can use a command line well enough to install an app, but are not software developers, are getting quite rare these days. Lots of people I know who used to be competent with a command line seem to have lost the skill entirely. 

John

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[mic _]

>My impression is that people who can use a command line well enough to install an app, but are not software developers, are getting quite rare these days

Maybe we're getting off-topic here, but yeah, I was thinking mainly of the cases where the fraudster is having a voice/videocall with the victim and giving them instructions on what to do. People are willing to jump through a surprising number of hoops if they have been convinced that the person at the other end is actually trying to save them from identify theft or having their bank account emptied.

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[enh]

On Wed, Aug 27, 2025 at 8:27 AM John Dallman <jgdats...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> That's splendid, thanks very much.
>
> It would be a good idea to get that added to https://developer.android.com/developer-verification/guides, because some commentators are saying that this change makes Android into a closed system.

yeah, that was the first thing i said to the folks working on this
when i learned about it yesterday :-)

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