Google Adding DRM to All Apps on the Play Store

[Trixanity]

1 hour ago, TroubleKlef said:

I think Google if finally realizing that in order to have any semblance of quality control you need to have some control and lock things down.

This isn't really quality control nor is it locking things down

1 hour ago, TroubleKlef said:

Eh, essentially what I'm reading is that without the extra pieces of proprietary code, your app will not run. Isn't that essentially DRM?

That's an interpretation of the OP. Doesn't say anything of the sort in the source. When you submit your app to the play store it'll get the meta data added automatically. You don't need to do anything.

You can still download and install any APK you want. You can develop apps without using the play store or even without using play services.

[EPENEX]

This is just adding metadata to official playstore apps so they can be verified as such? I could see bad implications in the future from this. On my phone, only 14 out of 49 of my apps are from the playstore, and even then I used yalp store to download the apk's as I have playstore and google services removed.

[Sniperfox47]

5 hours ago, EPENEX said:

This is just adding metadata to official playstore apps so they can be verified as such? I could see bad implications in the future from this. On my phone, only 14 out of 49 of my apps are from the playstore, and even then I used yalp store to download the apk's as I have playstore and google services removed.

I doubt this will be a problem. Locking phones down to require this seems like a really good way to get an anti-competitive investigation in Europe.

[EPENEX]

2 minutes ago, Sniperfox47 said:

I doubt this will be a problem. Locking phones down to require this seems like a really good way to get an anti-competitive investigation in Europe.

Apple has no problem with their locked down ecosystem causing them trouble with the EU.

[Trixanity]

10 hours ago, EPENEX said:

Apple has no problem with their locked down ecosystem causing them trouble with the EU.

It was already locked down so there is no bait and switch. Also, Apple's market share is only 25%.

3 hours ago, rrubberr said:

One way or another this sounds like trouble for installing apps on "sketchy" devices, like my BlackBerry 10 phones, which do not support Google Play services, and only support Android 4.3 apps through a simulator. Few enough apps work as is!

 

No change in your scenario. APKs will work as before. This only applies to apps distributed through the play store which you don't have.

[Trixanity]

12 hours ago, rrubberr said:

I have to mooch off play store APK's from places like apkpure; the source is the same.

We don't know for sure how this metadata will affect non-Play Services devices yet (or any device regardless of configuration for that matter). However, you should be able to use F-DROID. It should be independent and therefore not contain any Google shenanigans. Otherwise you can try contacting the developers of the apps you use to either get a DRM-free APK or ask if they can distribute it elsewhere like F-DROID or even just on XDA.

 

Edit: According to Android Police there is no danger for the user in side loading apps. It's merely a checksum between the app and the store. Apps without the checksum will work as usual. There is no clarification on whether apps will run on devices with no store access but if we follow their argument then if there is no store on your device it simply won't need to check for authenticity. Android Police is affiliated with APKmirror so they should be on top of this as it affects their business.