Xiaomi wants to prevent extracting APK files from everywhere. Google vs.

Good Corporation is sure that there is no effective way to block

For many years, the ease of extracting and sharing APK files (used to install apps) has been a benefit to the Android ecosystem. For example, if a recent app update is causing serious problems, you can go to a crowdsourced website to download an older version until the issue is resolved. Or, if the amount of data is limited, you can ask someone locally to send the APK file of the game or app update for installation.

But not all companies are enthusiastic about the ability to copy and install APK files from third-party sources. So, the message came that Xiaomi has already created an open source Android project that prohibits device owners from copying APK files from third-party sources. The reason is "to protect private resources".

Xiaomi wants apps to be available only on the Google Play Store or other trusted marketplace. Unexpectedly, Google opposed the company's initiative. But not because of competition and freedom of sources to get content. The problem is that the software prepared by Xiaomi has a significant drawback. It is designed to block the extraction of APK files only from the regular (custom) build of Android. According to one of the employees of Google, in order to get around this limitation, it will be enough to install a debug build of the green robot and this will allow you to extract the APK in the usual way. Those. in fact, he says that the Xiaomi lock is not an effective and efficient tool.

In addition, a number of Google developers believe that APK files cannot be considered "private". A possessed APK cannot be expected to be kept secret. They are sure that even if they would like to do this, they cannot guarantee that any of the methods will actually work.

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Source: 9to5google