This Chit Chat Across the Pond occurred spontaneously without planning. I was curious about the ramifications of Epic Games’ epic decision to only allow downloading of the insanely popular game Fortnite by side loading on Android. Sideloading is a term that refers to the method by which Android users can acquire apps for their devices that are not in the Google Play Store. In order to side load an app, you have to disable security features of Android.
I wanted to know more so I called up long time IT guy and Android user Robb Dunewood of the SMR Podcast to walk through what all of this means and it was so interesting we decided to record it. We talk about the potential for malware by people pretending to offer Fortnite. This is a real danger because most Android phones will not be capable of running Fortnite so people (and especially kids) will try really hard to find it another way and will find the malware sites.
You can find Robb on Twitter @RobbDunewood
Links we discussed:
- 12% of Android phones are on Oreo developer.android.com
- Android has 85.9% market share statista.com
- How Android Oreo changed sideloading Howtogeek.com
- Fortnite Might Not Even Run on Your Phone: bgr.com
- How to check if your Android phone is powerful enough to run Fortnite Mobile: xda-developers.com
- Forcing gamers to download ‘Fortnite’ from outside the Google Play store is greedy and wrong: bgr.com
What a strange world that parents are giving children expensive smart phones with effectively unlimited access to the wild and wooly Internet. Then let the kids sign up for games that, I guess, can draw from open credit cards to make “in app purchases.” Must be what’s happening for Epic to make so much money off iOS, because Fortnite is free, and in app purchases are its source of profits.
FYI – to install the Amazon “Appstore” for Android requires flipping the same “Unknown Sources” Security Setting needed for Fortnite. The “Android Police Podcast” maintains a curated library of Android .apks which enable side-loading of a wealth of Apps. But to install requires flipping that security toggle. F-Droid is a site that curates free and open source Android Apps. Yep. Have to flip that switch.
Maybe the folks complaining about the Epic capitalists selling Fortnite are coming at it backwards. Could, gasp, the greedy ones be Google and Apple and the 30% vig they collect as middle-men?
Ha! Google saved Epic’s you know what by finding out on August 15 that the Fortnite Installer distributed by Samsung could be suborned to install malware.
Here’s the source. Interesting to see the how the process works.
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/112630336
Thanks for Posting George! – Robb sent me this too. There will be an addendum in my recording after SB is over.