Android is about to stop being an appropriate smartphone platform

When I started using a smartphone, the choice between Android and iOS seemed easy. Of course, Apple had an attractive user interface and an early advance on the management of third -party software, but following the road to the iPhone meant to live in Apple’s enclosed garden. And although there are absolutely advantages in this type of approach, it fundamentally felt bad for me: I considered smartphones as the next phase of computers for general use, and I was not interested in a locked platform like a gaming console.

For a while, Android wanted to get the most out of both worlds. If you wanted an iPhone -type experience, you were welcome to get your Play Store applications (well, Android Market at that time), and if you did not do it, you were free to take matters into your own hands and to install the software you want, whatever the summary corner of the Internet.

This kind of freedom is intrinsically risky. But this is also the situation that computers are sailing since the first day.

Now, well in its second decade of existence, Android changes. This has been changing for some time, to be fair, with Google taking more and more Apple type decisions, prioritizing the above-cost of the user’s choice. The growing dependence on the integrity controls of the games was a nightmare for the personalized ROM community, refusing them access to popular applications. And now, the other shoe is finally ready to fall, because Android is preparing for the compulsory registration of developers.

From next year, Android will start to block the installation of applications even online from unknown sources in Google. The developers distributing their software via the Play Store must already register with Google, but so far, if you only do APKs available for breeding – like an open -source project could do so, or an amateur who only affects the creation of an Android application for pleasure – you were free to remain anonymous.

At the moment, I am not worried about the implications of confidentiality; Google says it can “may require that you download a government identifier. Lock a platform so that it no longer supports the free installation of software without the approval of someone else transforms Android from the laptop that I always wanted in another iPhone game console. This no longer counts as a full -fledged computer – and as a result, not as an appropriate smartphone.

I am sure that Hot Take seems incredibly reducing, but it is a huge problem that IT in general has made its opinion for years now, and it is far from unique to mobile devices. Secure Boot has reduced the choice of software for users on Windows PCs, and although there are still options, there are already large ecosystem components that have fallen into this same locked chain chain trap.

This is another problem: it is not at all a security security issue. Unlike systems like Play Protect, which try to determine whether the code we want to execute on our phones is malicious or not, the registration of developers will do nothing to prevent you from installing and executing malicious software. It is about the responsibility – who blame after the fact.

By announcing the compulsory registration of developers, Google offers three arguments in favor of this system:

• Dissuade the bad actors who prefer to operate anonymously.
• Makes the diffusion of damage By linking bad applications to their developers. This helps us keep responsible developers, apply security policies and remove malware.
• Stimulates user confidenceHelp you establish relationships with new users and establish confidence.

This first point is a double -edged sword. There is a lot Categories of developers who prefer to publish their software anonymously, and bad players are just one. The third point, I simply don’t care; It is between developers and their users, and there are certainly other ways to strengthen it.

But the second is the meat of this decision: it is a question of being able to Prohibit developers.

Everything Google could do before was to keep them out of the play store or try to detect their code with Play Protect. Pushing with this nuclear option is nothing less than admitting the failure of this strategy. If it feels like coming with a dose of condescension, it should. Google says essentially: you have been too stupid to listen to our perfectly clear messages about being dangerous, so we remove the option.

Because this is exactly what it is: the compulsory recording of the developer transforms the download into just another arm of the Play Store, only one without a distribution system. It actually gives Google Universal Approval of Applications on Android.

These are phone bullshit. Appropriate smartphones are open. And I’ll miss them.