Google has just revealed that Android users will soon have to wait 24 hours before they can install apps from outside the official Play Store – a dramatic change for a platform that has always prided itself on being more open.
And while phones are the immediate target, the same restrictions could eventually land on your Android TV or Google TV streaming device, with legitimate apps – as well as “dodgy” IPTV apps.
For the past few months, we’ve been covering Amazon’s ongoing crackdown on sideloaded apps on Fire TV devices – from the launch of the locked-down Vega OS on the Fire TV Stick 4K Select, to the active blocking of known illegal IPTV apps across all existing Fire TV devices, including here in the UK.
Now Google appears to be heading in a similar direction on Android.
What Is Sideloading, and Why Does It Matter?
Sideloading simply means installing an app on a device from outside its official app store.
On an Amazon Fire TV, for example, you’d normally install apps through Amazon’s Appstore. Sideloading lets you bypass that and install apps directly from elsewhere on the internet.
It’s not inherently illegal or even suspicious. Plenty of people sideload perfectly legitimate apps that simply aren’t available in the official store for whatever reason – apps their TV’s region doesn’t support, media players with features the official versions lack, or tools for managing their home network.
But sideloading is also how illegal IPTV apps end up on “dodgy” streaming sticks – and increasingly, it’s also how scammers get malicious software onto people’s phones.
That dual nature is at the heart of everything that’s happening right now.
What Amazon Has Already Done
Amazon has been under intense pressure from broadcasters – particularly Sky – to crack down on sideloading on Fire TV devices.
Sky’s chief operating officer Nick Herm publicly claimed in early 2025 that Fire TV Sticks accounted for roughly half of all Premier League piracy in the UK, and demanded Amazon do something about it.
Amazon’s response came in two parts.
First, in October 2025, it launched the Fire TV Stick 4K Select – a new streaming stick running a completely new operating system called Vega OS, built directly on Linux rather than Android.
Because it’s a fundamentally different platform, Vega OS simply doesn’t support sideloading at all. Only apps from Amazon’s official Appstore can run on it – full stop.
Then Amazon went further by rolling out active blocking of known illegal IPTV apps across its entire existing Fire TV range – every Android-based Fire TV Stick and Cube already in people’s homes.
This was done in partnership with the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), a coalition of over 50 entertainment companies including Netflix, Disney, Sky, and the Premier League.
ACE identifies which apps are providing access to pirated content, and Amazon blocks those specific apps from working on your device.
That blocking reached UK Fire TV devices in February 2026, with users seeing a message telling them their app had been “disabled because it has been identified as using or providing access to unlicensed content.”
The important distinction is that Amazon isn’t blocking sideloading entirely on existing Android-based Fire TVs – it’s blocking specific apps it has identified as problematic.
You can still sideload other things. The new Select stick is the only Fire TV device where sideloading is completely off the table.
Now Google Is Getting Involved
Back in August 2025, Google announced it was planning to require all apps installed on certified Android devices to come from “verified developers.”
That means any developer distributing an app outside of Google Play would need to register their identity with Google, provide government-issued ID, and pay a $25 fee.
Apps from developers who hadn’t gone through that process simply wouldn’t install.
The reaction from the tech community was swift and pretty fierce. Developers, open-source advocates, and power users all pushed back hard – arguing it would effectively kill the kind of independent app development that has always been part of Android’s appeal.
A coalition of 37 organisations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, published an open letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai urging the company to reverse course.
There’s also an elephant in the room worth acknowledging. The timing of Google’s announcement was, to put it politely, convenient – coming shortly after Google lost a major antitrust case and was ordered by courts to allow third-party app stores within the Play Store.
Those alternative app stores all rely on sideloading, which led many observers to suggest the new restrictions were less about security and more about Google quietly clawing back control over its platform.
What Google Is Actually Doing Now
After months of pushback, Google has softened its position considerably – and last week published full details of what the new system will actually look like.
The good news is that sideloading is not being killed off. Google has been explicit about that, with Android Ecosystem President Sameer Samat repeatedly stating that “sideloading is fundamental to Android, and it’s not going anywhere.”
The less-good news is that sideloading apps from unverified developers is going to become noticeably more of a hassle.
Here’s how the new process will work for anyone wanting to install an app from an unverified developer. It’s a one-time setup per device, but it’s deliberately designed to be slow:
- You’ll need to enable developer mode in your device’s settings
- You’ll be asked to confirm that nobody is coaching you through this process
- You’ll need to restart your device
- Then you wait – 24 hours
- After the wait, you confirm your identity using your fingerprint, face unlock, or PIN
- Finally, you can choose to allow unverified app installs for seven days or indefinitely
Once you’ve done that once, you won’t need to repeat the whole process – though you’ll still see a warning asking you to tap “Install Anyway” for each unverified app you install.
Why 24 Hours?
Google’s justification for the waiting period is actually more reasonable than it might first appear.
The specific threat Google is trying to address is a type of scam that’s genuinely on the rise – particularly in parts of Asia, but increasingly elsewhere too.
A scammer calls a victim claiming to be from their bank, or claiming a family member is in trouble.
They create a sense of extreme urgency and walk the victim through disabling security settings and installing a malicious app – all while staying on the phone to make sure they don’t stop and think.
“In that 24-hour period, we think it becomes much harder for attackers to persist their attack,” Samat explained to Ars Technica. “In that time, you can probably find out that your loved one isn’t really being held in jail or that your bank account isn’t really under attack.”
The restart step is also specifically designed to cut off any active call or remote access session a scammer might be using to watch what the victim is doing.
Whether you find this convincing or convenient, it’s worth acknowledging that these phone-based scams are a documented and serious problem.
That said, sceptics have a point too. Google already has tools to block specific malicious apps. A mandatory 24-hour delay affects every sideloader – including the millions of people who just want to install a legitimate app that isn’t in the Play Store.
When Is This Happening?
Not imminently, at least not in the UK.
The new system goes live in August 2026 – but only to give users a chance to get ahead of it. The actual enforcement, where unverified apps will be blocked by default, starts in September 2026 – and initially only in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand.
The global rollout, including the UK, isn’t expected until 2027 at the earliest.
What About Your Streaming Device?
This is the question that’s most relevant to Cord Busters readers – and unfortunately, the honest answer is that we don’t know yet.
Google has so far only confirmed these changes for Android phones. The official documentation specifically mentions phones, and Google hasn’t stated whether or when Android TV and Google TV devices will be affected.
But it’s not a stretch to assume they eventually will be.
Android TV and Google TV run on the same underlying platform, and certified devices – including popular streaming hardware from Nvidia and others, smart TVs from Sony, TCL, Philips, and others – all use Google’s certified builds of Android.
Logically, the same restrictions could apply to them at some point.
Non-certified Android devices – generic streaming boxes from manufacturers who don’t use Google’s certified version of Android – would likely remain unaffected, since the restrictions only apply to devices running Google’s official certified software.
Amazon Fire TV devices are also unaffected by Google’s changes, since Fire OS is Amazon’s own fork of Android and operates completely independently of Google’s ecosystem.
What we can say is that the direction of travel is clear. Both Amazon and Google are tightening their grip on what can be installed on their platforms.
Amazon has moved faster and more aggressively – actively blocking specific apps and, with the Select stick, creating a device where sideloading isn’t possible at all.
Google is taking a more measured approach, keeping sideloading technically available but making it deliberately harder.
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