The main feature, or rather one of the main, that distinguishes Android from iOS is to be able to install third-party applications even outside the official store. The App Store is to Apple as the Play Store is to Google, although the latter can rely on sideload. It is a practice we all do: downloading applications from an unofficial store. We know the dangers: the Play Store blocks all (or almost all) malware and viruses, which we cannot avoid without it. Well, it looks like in the future at least for some applications, too Android 12 will behave the same way.
Android 12 will not allow you to install applications that do not come from the Play Store: the first clues come from Google Camera and Google Recorder
What is happening? The XDA team found evidence about the possibility that Android 12 won't allow us to install apps via sideload in the future. As anticipated, this is not a practice poco known: every time we download and install an apk from a site that is not Play Store, we are proceeding with sideloading. According to what has been revealed, in the future applications such as Google Camera and Google Recorder will no longer be downloadable. Yes, it means that we will not be able to use the Modded GCam.
Apple is the only company that doesn't allow sideloading at the moment. Obviously it does this for security reasons but also to maintain a sort of "monopoly" (if we can call it that) on the applications developed. The code is in fact different from that of the Android apps. We can therefore say that Android 12, the open source operating system par excellence, it is slowly turning into a closed system like Apple's, i.e. iOS.
Currently the developers in the XDA forum were unable to find a way around these practices. Even sideloading through ADB was blocked by Google. That said, we do not know if this policy will actually be adopted for all applications or only those owned by Google, such as GCam and Recorder.
