Android sideloading poll: how often do you manually install apps? | Laptop News

Some Android users will spend their entire lives not running any apps other than those they discover on the Play Store, Google’s official repository for Android software — and that’s totally fine! If that feels too limiting, though, or if you’ve got an issue (whether practical or philosophical) with the way Google does business, you’ve also got your pick of alternate app stores — the Amazon Appstore and Samsung’s Galaxy Store probably being the most well-known options there. But then there’s the Wild West of app distribution: sideloading.

When you sideload an app, you’re downloading an installation file (in the form an APK) or copying one over to your phone, and then manually telling Android to install this app. Much like many things in life, there are good reasons and bad reasons for doing things this way. On the good side, developers might have very legitimate concerns about wanting to handle their distribution outside Google’s ecosystem (perhaps due to sexual or drug content that violates Google’s policies), or you might be specifically interested in installing an older version of an app that you’ve tracked down through a reliable site (like APKMirror) that archives them. On the bad side, threat actors may try to trick you into installing malware that wouldn’t hold up to the scrutiny of the Play Store.

That may sound like sideloading is a scary feature, but it would be more accurate to call it a powerful one — and it’s up to you how that power’s used. The good news is that Google has your back even when sideloading, and Play Protect is able to scan apps you install yourself for potential security issues. You’ve also got the power to control how sideloaded software is able to access your device…