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by lern_too_spel 2026 days ago
Nearly 100%, but you're comparing against the wrong devices. When I run a Linux router, I am not choosing at random from all the vendors. It's the same for my phone. I choose which one to use on purpose. Not only can I install my own apps, but I can install my own system as well. This lets me run devices from 2013 on the latest version of Android.

Answers below until I am no longer rate limited:

> Sure but almost nobody can do that because they didn’t make the same careful choice as you did.

What does that have to do with anything? Just because all iOS devices are bad and many Android devices are bad doesn't mean all devices are bad. I choose from the good devices.

> Also, you routinely make unsupported claims

Show me one unsupported claim I have made.

> you are going to say nearly 100%, you’ll need to show a source.

I have literally never seen an Android phone that does not allow sideloading. I have heard of many that do not allow unlocking the bootloader, but sideloading is standard. I can't provide a source because the idea that an Android phone would not allow sideloading is so absurd that nobody would bother explaining why it doesn't exist.

> it contradicts what others say when I suggest Android is an open alternative to iOS.

What have others said?

Edit 2 for the second post:

> Usually when I bring up sideloading as a reason why people should choose Android if they don’t like the restrictions of iOS, people claim that it is too hard for regular users to do because of the configuration required.

The OS takes the user to the settings checkbox to check. This has been true for as long as I can remember.

1 comments

Sure but almost nobody can do that because they didn’t make the same careful choice as you did.

Also, you routinely make unsupported claims, so if you are going to say nearly 100%, you’ll need to show a source.

I’m happy to accept this as true by the way - I would like Android to have this level of openness, but it contradicts what others say when I suggest Android is an open alternative to iOS.

I’m not going to respond in general to your edited comment, since it is not what I replied to originally.

Editing a comment to get round a rate limit creates a misrepresentation of the thread your interlocutor was responding to.

I don’t mind waiting for you to be allowed to respond in the normal way.

Nobody is talking about Android phones ‘not allowing sideloading’.

The question is only about what percentage of phones allow a sideloaded app to be installed from the web just by responding to a dialog, rather than changing a configuration.

Usually when I bring up sideloading as a reason why people should choose Android if they don’t like the restrictions of iOS, people claim that it is too hard for regular users to do because of the configuration required.

I was responding to a comment which said this had changed and now it is much easier.

I don’t believe nearly 100% of users have this experience yet, but I am curious to know what the number actually is, because it matters for developers.

> people claim that it is too hard for regular users to do because of the configuration required.

Who are these people? The error message has always linked to the settings checkbox to allow installing the app. The only thing that has changed is which checkbox it links to because the settings for installing apps from unknown sources have changed. Here is a video of the way it used to be. I know that you're going to say that you don't believe video proof, but this is all I have for you.

https://youtu.be/GuzKSUMyCUM

I don’t need video proof for this. Other people are confirming it.

‘These people’ are generally replying to the suggestion that if people don’t like iOS because it it doesn’t allow sideloading, then why not buy Android?

From what you and others are saying, sideloading may not even be an appropriate term - you make it sound like you can just install software from the web on Android directly.

> I don’t need video proof for this. Other people are confirming it.

So you take an uncomfirmed report over video proof. Got it. No wonder your "facts" are all wrong.

> you make it sound like you can just install software from the web on Android directly.

Yes, that is the case. Sideloading is just the ability to install apps from somewhere other than the official store(s) on the device.

I take a a report from an honest and reasonable interlocutor who has demonstrated domain knowledge on HN over a random YouTube video, yes.

If there is a wrong fact that I have stated, you would be able to show an example.