Have you ever noticed that every time you try to install an app on your Android phone from outside the Google Play Store, you have to jump through a few hoops before you can actually install it? There is a reason for this.

Google has restrictions on sideloading, and these restrictions have been in place since Android was designed. However, in recent years, these restrictions have increased. It’s annoying, but when you think about it, it’s for his own good.

What is side loading?

What we know as side loading it’s, basically, anything that involves loading things onto your phone “from the side.” Instead of installing apps from the Google Play Store, some apps will be distributed through other means, such as alternative app stores or even websites. You can install any app on your phone by downloading its respective APK file, opening that file and clicking “install”. From there, the app will work like any other app you downloaded from the Play Store.

However, there are restrictions. If an app is not available on the Google Play Store, it will have no way to update itself, which means that every time you want to update the app, you will have to download the APK again and install it again. Your Android phone also places restrictions on installing APKs, which is not for the faint of heart.

What restrictions does Android have on sideloading?

For starters, you can’t just grab an app from your file manager app and install it, no questions asked. On Android phones, you must manually grant permission to an app, such as Chrome, to install APKs on your phone. Before that, you had to manually enable a universal flag in the Settings app that let you install third-party apps. The new method is much more granular and, therefore, more secure. No app on your phone can install APK files unless you manually allow it to do so.

Recently, however, Android has started increasing the number of restrictions placed on third-party apps. On the one hand, Android 13 and then Android 15 started to prevent third-party apps from accessing certain permissions by default. These permissions include things like the ability to be set as the default dialer or SMS app, the ability to serve as a device administrator or show up over other apps, and many other restrictions.

Additionally, Google’s Play Integrity API now provides developers with an easy way to crack down on third-party installed versions of their apps. If a developer detects that someone has downloaded their app, they can take steps to trick a user into downloading the app from the Play Store and, if that fails, simply block the app so it can no longer be downloaded. used. This allows developers to crack down, for example, on someone using a modified version of an app or illegally using a paid app.

Why does Android restrict it?

The reason for these restrictions is actually quite reasonable. It’s for your own good. The fact that it’s relatively easy to install an app from somewhere other than the Play Store also means that it’s relatively easy to distribute apps that go against Play Store policies. If you’re not too savvy, you may end up installing an app that was automatically downloaded from a malicious app, thereby causing malware to run on your phone.

Android doesn’t mind sideloading. If that were the case, it wouldn’t be allowed at all. It really wants you to make sure that you actually intend to install an app on your phone, and it puts in several failsafes just so that, if you ignore them, you really know what you’re doing.

In the case of hacked apps, modified apps, and other types of unauthorized uses of apps available on the Play Store, Google wants to give developers tools to crack down on them. But something like a game that’s not available on the Google Play Store or an open source app that you just compiled yourself? That’s perfectly fine.

Side loading is great, you just have to practice it safely.