Android 12: 3rd Party App Store Revolution Details Are Available

Last September, Google announced
that 3rd party app stores will make it easier to run on Android phones from
Android 12 onwards. This move from Google came in response to Epic Games, which
criticized the closed nature of the application ecosystem. Thus, Google, which
allows companies to expand their applications, did not give a specific
explanation on how to do this. Of course, this was because Google had not
officially announced Android 12.

Google officially introduced
Android 12 with the Google I / O event it organized recently, and thus had the
opportunity to share more information about this new operating system.
Third-party app stores have also been confirmed to work better with the new
platform starting with this new release.

What application developers
should do is explained on the XDA-Developers pages. Application developers will
be able to access a new parameter called require user action when using the
REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES permission. Currently, whenever you install an app
from outside of the Play Store, you have to give the installer permission to
install apps, even if an existing app has an update, and then approve each
install individually. However, when applications are allowed to install
packages with this new parameter, no user action will be required to confirm
each installation.

However, there are a few
requirements for this to work. First, the required user action parameter must be
set to “false”. Next, the app that is installed needs to target the
29 API version that is Android 10 or higher. The application that is installed
must be either an update in the installer itself (i.e. in the app store) or an
update of the application originally installed by that particular installer.
Finally, the app store should report the UPDATE_PACKAGES_WITHOUT_USER_ACTION
permission.

When all these requirements are
met, app stores can more easily install updates to existing apps. Of course,
the easiest method in Android 12 will be to distribute applications to users
via the Play Store.