Android 14 will make it more difficult to sideload older apps, according to a code change found. Google would like to prevent malware with this. Sideloading those older apps can then only be done via the command shell.
With Android 14, Google wants to make it more difficult to install apps that use an SDK version that belongs to the first Android versions. 9To5Google writes based on now private made code changes. Malware often uses old SDK versions to bypass the protections of the operating system.
With recent Android versions it is already impossible to install new apps with outdated SDK versions via the Play Store, but this can be done still sideloading. This means that users can still install malware apps. With the upcoming Android version, Google would like to prevent this by also making it more difficult to sideload those apps.
First it only concerns very old SDK versions that cannot be installed on Android 14, so Android 6 apps can still be sideloaded, for example. But Google would like to increase this SDK threshold in the future, so that apps with the Android 6 SDK version cannot simply be installed.
These blocked, old apps are still flag in the command shell if a user so desires. The average user will probably not do this so quickly, which should make the operating system more secure, according to Google.
