TikTok Wants Android Users To Sideload Its App (techcrunch.com) 20
With TikTok's U.S. ban temporarily paused, the company is encouraging Android users to sideload its app by downloading it directly from TikTok.com as an APK file, bypassing the Google Play Store. TechCrunch reports: The Android app download is being made available as an Android Package Kit, more commonly known as an APK file, which contains the app's code, assets, and other resources that TikTok needs to run. By offering a standalone download, TikTok can at least temporarily skirt the current app store ban, which still prevents both Google Play and Apple's App Store from hosting the app while the ban's enforcement remains paused.
Before phones (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
before iPhones, this was the normal way to put software on phones.
Re: (Score:2)
Half the fun of owning an iDevice was pressing the sync button on iTunes and praying that it actually does what you intended it to. Today's kids with their fancy cloud everything have no idea.
Re:Before phones (Score:4, Insightful)
That route is kind of a pain for getting software updates and checking signatures. But we didn't do either of those very much in the old days.
Having a virus on a PC with dial-up Internet (or no internet at all) wasn't quite as bad as compared to having malware on a device that is constantly connected with access to your phone number and potentially the ability to slurp 2FA SMS messages up while monitoring your app usage through the built-in telemetry in Android.
Re: Before phones (Score:1)
There were multiple stores, and there still are.
Re: (Score:2)
If you install a signed apk from a store that you enabled then it's not really sideloading.
Re: (Score:2)
That route is kind of a pain for getting software updates
It is trivial for the app to check at launch if updates are available, maybe download them in the background and apply the update at the next start... kind of what Firefox does on Windows.
Re: (Score:2)
This was the "normal" way to put software onto a computer.
Yeah, this story should really be tagged from the do-you-feel-old-yet? dept.
"Modern smartphone app has to be installed the way we used to install every piece of software back in the day. News at 11."
What about other stores? (Score:2)
Could they also upload their app to independent stores outside the reach of US regulations? Mostly that means Aptoide (offices in Lisbon and Shenzen). That would have an advantage for ByteDance that they can push updates and assume users will get them (while you can't assume today's youngsters to repeatedly download and install APKs manually).
Re: What about other stores? (Score:1)
It'd be interesting to learn which stores ARE subject to USA shenanigans...I'll have to check the one I use.
EPIC (Score:3)
To be fair, Epic said the exact same thing about Fortnite (android sideloading), but I doubt people will take the same issue to that as they're inevitably going to take with TikTok.
Decentralised store? (Score:1)
It seems like a p2p decentralised store might be able to escape the dirty fingers of the USA government...
Is there a tendency for the world to try to decouple from the USA? It seems increasingly so from my point of view.
Sideloading (Score:3)
Yeah I just did this on my Android TV box with SmartTube, can't believe I ever got along without it.
You can technically sideload it on iOS too (Score:2)
The process [slashdot.org] is just a bit more involved. You're also not really sideloading it so much as just making it appear that you're in a different country where TikTok isn't banned. Then Apple's App Store will let you download a copy of the IPA, signed with your account credentials, which can be installed using a legacy supported method for loading previously purchased apps from your PC onto your device.
Re: You can technically sideload it on iOS too (Score:2)
I'm still trying to figure out what would make a person want to install tiktok to begin with. I've got actual diagnosed ASD and ADHD, supposedly the target audience of short videos, and I don't understand what people get out of watching a video of a guy watching a video of a guy making a chocolate dick.
Re: (Score:2)
You're asking the wrong person; I find short format videos obnoxious too. If it wasn't for the fact that it rubs me entirely the wrong way when the government comes in and says what kind of apps I can have on my phone, I'd happy say "good riddance" to TikTok ceasing US operations. I'm purely in "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" territory when it comes to the TikTok issue.
Sure buddy (Score:1)
Tbh if I really wanted to "sideload" malware I'd visit a pr0n site!
Have we forgotten? (Score:1)