Last week, Google finally unveiled its long-awaited “advanced process” for installing third-party files from unverified developers, which will be available later this year for all Android phones. The process solves many questions about future installation of third-party APKs, though it doesn’t answer every possible nuance. Fortunately, a new FAQ video largely sheds light on some of them, including confirming that this process won’t need to be repeated when upgrading to a new phone.
The Android Developers Twitter account shared a video answering popular questions, hosted by Matthew Forsyth, Google’s “chief product explainer.” He explains the highlights of the transition in detail. Most importantly, how it works on the new device. According to Forsyth, once you activate the advanced process on your current Android device, it can be transferred to your new phone during setup.
However, a few open questions remain. What happens if you reset your current device to factory settings? Will the system be able to detect-on a hardware or account level-that the process has already been activated? Also interesting is what happens after flashing the new OS: will the non-standard firmware download remain active and can it be transferred if the two devices are not close to each other? The answers to these questions will have to wait for now in a potential second FAQ video.
The video also contains other important details:
- Installing via ADB is not affected by the 24-hour waiting period, so there’s no way to bypass it with a single command. You’ll have to use the normal third-party download process for the first day.
- Apps can’t tell if the advanced process is activated because the changes happen at the operating system level.
- To update untested applications, the advanced process must be enabled, even if the limited 7-day window is used. Once it is complete, the update process will need to be repeated. Forsyth notes that this option is intended more for testing applications than for permanent installation.
- Developer mode doesn’t need to be left active for further installation of untested APKs. This is important because some banking apps don’t work with developer mode enabled. Once the wait is over, you can return to normal settings.
- The process does not violate non-disclosure agreements for developers, and app verification is not mandatory.
Given the responses about phone updates and banking apps working, this change seems like a one-time minor inconvenience for users who regularly install third-party apps. Hopefully, questions about reflashing and factory reset will also be clearly explained in the future.