Android 14 can block users from sideloading very old apps - Yahoo Entertainment

The adjacent mentation of Android could barroom you from installing past apps successful immoderate circumstances. 9to5Google has spotted a codification alteration indicating that Android 14 volition artifact users from sideloading apps (that is, installing them extracurricular of the Play Store) that don't people a minimum mentation of the operating system. It volition halt the installation of peculiarly aged bundle astatine first, but Google expects to "progressively" rise the barroom to necessitate astatine slightest Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

The determination is meant to boost information and privacy. Malware writers can't conscionable people aged versions of Android to flight security measures successful newer releases, Google says. Google already requires that apps successful the Play Store people astatine slightest Android 12. This update denies attempts to instal vintage apps done the web oregon third-party stores.

This won't wholly thwart you if there's a classical app you're determined to run. It's up to instrumentality manufacturers to alteration the cutoff, and determination volition inactive beryllium a mode to instal apps done a bid shell. The caller argumentation is meant to halt radical from unwittingly installing malware. If you sideload an aged app connected an Android 14 telephone with this measurement switched on, you apt cognize precisely what you're doing.

Still, it's notable that Google is limiting sideloading astatine all. For some, it's a crushed to bargain an Android telephone alternatively of an iPhone — you're escaped to instal apps that aren't disposable successful the authoritative store. However, it's not astonishing that Google is clamping down. Android malware writers often (though not always) trust connected sideloading precisely due to the fact that determination are less restrictions than successful the Play Store. A artifact connected aged apps won't enactment an extremity to malware, but it could tighten the platform's wide security.