Google finally announced its long-awaited “advanced flow” for enabling sideloading from unverified developers last week, set to roll out later this year to all Android phones. It addressed a lot of the concerns we had with the future of installing third-party APKs, but that’s not to say it delivered every answer under the sun. Thankfully, a new FAQ video is going a long way in filling in some of the gaps, including confirming you won’t need to repeat this process when you get a new phone.
The Android Developers account on Twitter shared a video FAQ hosted by Matthew Forsythe, Google’s “Chief Product Explainer” and the perfect person to help shine a little bit of light on this transition. There are plenty of interesting talking points here, but the big reveal is what happens when you move to a new phone. According to Forsythe, once you’ve enabled this advanced flow on your current Android device, it’ll be able to be transferred to your new device during setup.
Now, this does leave us with some follow-up questions. What if you factory reset your current device? Is it able to detect — either at a hardware level or at an account level — that you’ve previously performed the steps to enable sideloading. Similarly, what if you’re flashing new ROMs on your phone? Is sideloading still enabled after flashing a fresh ROM, and can it be transferred despite not having two devices sitting right next to each other? Unfortunately, answers to both of those questions will have to wait for a potential second FAQ video in the future.
There are plenty of other interesting tidbits in this video as well, including:
- ADB installs are not impacted by the 24-hour waiting period, and therefore, there is no ADB command to bypass said 24-hour waiting period. Forsythe sets up the latter point as an ADB-specific question, but presumably, this also means you can’t plug your phone into your PC in order push a single ADB command to skip this portion of the process. For those first 24 hours, you are stuck sideloading with ADB.
- Apps cannot detect if advanced flow is enabled, because it’s an OS-level change.
- You need to keep advanced flow enabled to update unverified apps. This includes anyone who opts for the limited 7-day bypass window. Once those seven days are up, you’ll need to restart the process to update those applications. Forsythe says this option really exists specifically for testing apps, not for installing applications you intend to keep on your device.
- You do not need to keep developer mode on to continue installing unverified APKs. This one is huge, because it means one of the biggest concerns over this process — some banking apps not working when developer mode is enabled in settings — is moot. If the only thing you need developer mode for is to go through this specific process, you can restore your phone to normal once you’re finished with your waiting period.
- Verification does not violate developer NDAs. This one is specifically for devs, not end users, but it’s still good to know. Google says this process doesn’t involve reviewing the app.
With the phone upgrade and banking app questions answered — to my own personal satisfaction, and hopefully the broader Android audience’s — this change continues to look like a one-time minor inconvenience for those of us who rely on sideloading regularly. Fingers crossed those last few remaining questions surrounding ROM flashing and factory resets eventually get the same round of good news.
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