14 DAY TRIAL // Google has recently announced that the next version of Android will make it easier to install apps from third-party stores, and although the company hasn’t shared too many specifics, it’s pretty clear that the purpose here is to provide users with more control over their devices.
For comparison, iPhone users not only can install apps from the App Store exclusively, which is created and maintained by Apple, but they are also blocked from installing stand-alone packages from other sources or using manual installers.
At this point, most Android devices ship with two different app stores. Samsung phones, for example, feature both Google’s very own Play store but also the South Koreans’ Galaxy Store.
Android 12 coming in mid-2021
And Google wants to increase the security of users even when these apps aren’t downloaded from its stores. How exactly this is going to work is something that remains to be seen, as Google isn’t sharing too much information right now.
“Some developers have given us feedback on how we can make the user experience for installing another app store on their device even better. In response to that feedback, we will be making changes in Android 12 (next year’s Android release) to make it even easier for people to use other app stores on their devices while being careful not to compromise the safety measures Android has in place. We are designing all this now and look forward to sharing more in the future!” Google says.
Needless to say, it’ll take a while until the whole thing happens, as Android 12 is projected to go live in the summer of 2021.
The rollout of Android 11 started earlier this month, and it’ll take a while until it lands on all devices. At this point, only Google’s Pixel phones and devices from a series of other brands can download it.