Xiaomi's open source Android project wants to "block the extraction of APK files", but was rejected by Google on the grounds of "software defects"

According to 9to5google, smartphone maker Xiaomi recently created an open-source Android project that "prohibits device owners from copying APK files from third parties," citing "protection of private resources" in the hope that apps will only be available on the Google Play Store or Google Play. Used on other trusted marketplaces.

But unexpectedly, Google objected to the proposal.

As we all know, one of the great strengths of the Android ecosystem over the years is the "easy extraction and sharing of APK files" (for installing apps), which allows you to visit crowdsourcing sites to download old app updates even if they cause serious problems version until the issue is resolved.

That is: in a typical Android situation, users simply turn to reality like an APK Mirror, downloading an older version of the app in question, not updating until a corrective update is officially released, so they can continue smoothly at the same time use it.

Of course, there's another situation to consider: Say you don't have Wi-Fi coverage, and there's little mobile data available, not enough to download updates for games or apps. In this case, you can ask your friend to download a lot of mobile data and send you the APK file to be installed locally.

The above points suffice to say that in daily use, the ability to extract and install APK files is an important advantage for Android device users.

Xiaomi "Challenge" APK on Android devices

Of course, not all companies are keen to copy and extract APK files from third-party sources. Therefore, there have been recent rumors that Xiaomi has created an open-source Android project to prohibit device owners from copying APK files from third parties on the grounds of "protecting private resources".

Recently, Twitter user @MishaalRahman broke the news that an engineer from Xiaomi submitted a proposal to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) to completely prevent Android device owners from extracting APK files and copying them from the device to share them. document.

The reason given by Xiaomi is that "Apk may contain some private resources", so others should not be allowed to use it. In short, Xiaomi's developers say that apps for Android devices can only be downloaded through the Google Play Store or other reliable app stores.

Google confirms: There is no effective way to prevent the extraction of APK files

Google reportedly dismissed Xiaomi's proposal not because of factors such as competition and access to freedom of content, but because the software Xiaomi wrote had a big "flaw" -- it was designed to prevent Android-only downloads. APK files are extracted in regular (custom) builds.

According to a Google employee, the obstacles discussed here only involve extracting APKs from normal ("user") versions of Android. However, in order to bypass this limitation, it is sufficient to install an Android debug build to bypass this block, in short, the protection method proposed by Xiaomi cannot protect anything.

There are also some Google developers who believe that APK files cannot be "private" - "we should not expect the contents of the APK to remain secret"...they are sure that even if they wanted to, they couldn't guarantee any way can really work.

In other words, Google has also confirmed that there is no effective way to prevent the extraction of APK files.

At present, the project about Xiaomi has received "opposition" from many Google developers, and industry comments said that this seems to be a "good sign" that this proposal to "further close the Android ecosystem" is being rejected. negative.

Reference link: https://9to5google.com/2022/05/20/xiaomi-wants-to-put-an-end-to-extracting-apks-on-android-but-google-doesnt/#:~:text =Xiaomi%2C%20one%20of%20the%20biggest%20phone%20manufacturers%20in ,been%20a%20significant%20benefit%20for%20the%20Android%20ecosystem.