will android always have the ability to download apks that aren't on the play store?

[ahawkua]

Will Google ever get rid of being able to download apk files that's not in the play store?

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[Aquila]

IMO, that would be very surprising, but I suppose anything is possible.

 

[JeffDenver]

Will Google ever get rid of being able to download apk files that's not in the play store?

Probably not. Google has no reason to.

Android is not a product Google is selling. They do not make their money from Android. It's just a means to an end for them. Anything that makes Android less popular is not in Google's interests.

 

[ahawkua]

Think that would make a lot of people mad?

Posted via Android Central App

 

[UJ95x]

Probably. I don't think Google has any control of APK's anyway since it's up to app devs to release those outside of the Play Store. Maybe they could eliminate the option to allow unknown sources....


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[garublador]

Even if they did an OEM or ROM developer could just put it right back in there. Samsung did it with uSD card support. It's pretty hard to permanently add or remove functionality in an open source OS.

 

[JeffDenver]

Think that would make a lot of people mad?

Probably. Even if it did not, Google has no incentive to do it. Part of what makes their product appealing is the openness.

Google makes it very clear that adding APK's is at your own risk...a warning pops up when you disable your security (which you have to do in order to install APKs manually).