this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2025
32 points (100.0% liked)

degoogle

353 readers
1 users here now

Quit your Google addiction. Use privacy focused Services.

founded 10 months ago
MODERATORS
tfm@europe.pub
32
What We Talk About When We Talk About Sideloading (f-droid.org)
submitted 2 months ago by tfm@piefed.europe.pub to c/degoogle@europe.pub
5 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/38001927

In this post, I hope to clarify and expand on some of the points and rebut some of the counter-messaging that we have witnessed.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] artyom@piefed.social 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

A lot of this is just straight up wrong. All terms are "made up". Sideloading was coined before Android ever existed, meaning:

the process of transferring files between two local devices, in particular between a personal computer and a mobile device such as a mobile phone, smartphone, PDA, tablet, portable media player or e-reader.

You could argue that it was co-opted, but not "coined" for some insidious purpose.

But more than that, "sideloading" is simply a whole lot shorter to say or type than "installing apps from outside of the Google Play Store". This is why we have words for things.