Epic Games is suing Samsung (and Google) for making it harder to sideload Android apps

So if I'm reading this correctly, this is only a change in One UI, which Samsung makes, and only affects their devices... So why is Google being sued other than for headlines?

Also, it's still not blocked, just additional warnings educating users about security, or lack thereof with side loading.

Not really on Epic's side here honestly.

You're talking about the same Epic that intentionally broke TOS, threw a tantrum when it was correctly kicked off the store, responded with a prepared 80-page lawsuit a day later, lost on all but one count, and is now strutting around pretending it was all for the players while taking their money by the fistful.
- Apples TOS is complete bullshit and I support anyone that breaks it.
- They broke TOS in order to serve the letter. You can’t sue for something that doesn’t affect you. Saying they threw a tantrum is disgraceful
  
  And they should have won the Apple suit but Apple was deemed to not have a large enough market share to have a monopoly…even if they have a monopoly on Apple products
  
  It was terrible news for consumers
- Eh a lot of TOS bullshit is exactly that. And Apple is very far from perfect, especially with anything that could even think of threatening their walled garden. I assume everything Apple does is bad for the consumer, because 99% of the time that's accurate.

How about all app stores (including Play Store and Samung own app store) not installed as system apps and show warnings equally when user install something new?

Imagine a case similar to what we had about the default web browser on Windows.
- Stop, I've got insomnia and don't wanna get too excited 🤤
you can get this on something like graphene os. You can choose to install google play, or not to. and use any other app store like android and they all have the same permissions.
- Ain't google play assumes it always installed as system app and graphene os team had to build a sandbox around it?

I hate it, my shitty xiaomi gives me a 10 second cooldown before letting me install one 😤

Unrelated but, amazing pfp mate.

Tux do the speen haha, he so silly
- Ay thx 😎
- It's cool the first couple times but I wish there was a lemmy setting to disable it

Was curious of what the step is and found this video for Samsung https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6TMvBQ7Sm0

And for Google Pixel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD9nsSmDG_8

Doesn't seem too different from the old enable unknown apps aside from Samsung requiring an additional step. Unless third party apps get completely blocked having to enable it doesn't seem like a bad thing with how clueless lot of people are about apks and risks associated with them if they didn't get it from a safe source.

When did this become a thing? I sideload apps all the time with no issues.

Afaik new feature in android 15

Edit: Nvm, just read the article, apparently a feature in latest OneUI. So unless you use Samsung you wouldn't know it. That aside, with android 15 you will get some sort of "feature" which discourages sideloading.
- Well my Z Fold 3 stopped updating after Android 14, so I guess I need to make this phone last as long as humanly possible cause this is bullshit.

Samsung user.

Spotted the inclusion of Auto Blocker in the last system update.

The App can be disabled, or as I did, adb uninstalled.

honestly I think the complaint about there being no way for other app stores to become "authorized sources" is valid

Apple I can understand, but going after Samsung and Google for essentially putting up a warning before allowing to install an unknown 3rd party app is just unreasonable at this point. They're not even charging users for using it.
This is no different than Windows putting up a UAC prompt for admin privileges before installing their launcher and new game. No one is going to be stopped by that. Is Epic really going to be hurt by a mere prompt, or do they actually just want a white list fast pass in every Android phone? Or maybe their ultimate goal is to become the next Facebook bloatware in every new phone, lol.

except there's no warning for apps distributed through google you just hit one button the default state of android as a result is google = safe 😃 anything else = BAD SCARY VIRUS DON'T ⚠️ it never used to give such warnings endlessly and it was fine the average person these days is unfortunately really tech illiterate for some reason and googles intentionally trying to scare them into thinking sideloading is dangerous sure windows does it but windows does it for literally everything windows is constantly giving warnings so no one cares about warnings on windows android basically never gives warnings but then you try and leave google's ecosystem and it starts with the security theatre
- Woah, use commas.
- Well tech illiterate people are the last ones I'd trust to properly side load and doing their due diligence of knowing the source of their apk instead of a random one they found on the web.
  
  Personally when I install F-droid on a new phone I make sure to check the signing keys or at the very least the checksum. As unsafe as Google Play can be I trust tech illiterate people even less of safely getting apks.

Epic Games

...it rings a bell, but I'm too busy worrying about people who aren't corpo shitheads trying to convince the market they can offer something different

Epic are the ones with the resources to sue, but a favorable decision would almost certainly also apply to third party repos such as https://f-droid.org/

Because sideloading is definitely a major security issue if you don't know what you're doing?

edit: obviously I am very much against banning side loading. Sideloading is close to being the only reason I use Android. But I can't understand how few warnings really make people angry.

It's definitely not a great idea to let general public just willy nilly install minecraft_cracked.apk without at least few warnings. I love Fdroid/Obtanium and I'm not going to deny it's rather inconvenient to update apps with them but cmon..

The issue is treating all third party stores as side loading, when no other category of device does this. It violates EU anti trust laws, and possibly US antitrust laws as this lawsuit explores. We trust people to have figured this out for PCs and macs, mobile is quite literally no different at this point.
- Modern Windows gives you warning when you try to execute unsigned executables.
  
  Android is not outright banning sideloading. It's just showing you some annoying warnings, which, for me personally, is not enough deterrant to stop people from installing bad shit on their machine that has close to everything about that person.
F-Droid is a malware guys.
- Good chance if you have Fdroid you know what you're doing
If you don't know what you are doing why would you be side loading? It seems pretty easy to avoid
- I'm very happy my 12y old kid can't just sideload shit nilly willy. He legit Googles minecraft hacks and downloads random apks and stuff if he gets the chance)
  
  (his phone is also fully locked down with parental because a 12y old should have free reign on the internet, but that's beside the point)
- Scammers make old people install malicious app designed to steal user data and obviously much more. It's a trick as old as the Internet itself but it's much more devastating when literally almost every aspect of your life is at stake.
what if I have a store that checks security properly? I mean how do you believe app store and play store then? belive them simply because they are corporate overlords? this is like saying "we don't deserve freedom because we may do crimes"
- They're not making it impossible to install. Trust me if that was the case I'd just use iphone. But few warnings definitely don't hurt imo.