Moreover, many Anki-related projects are actively developed by independent, mostly third-party developers, including Jidoujisho, AnkiConnect, and other third-party tools. this apps are essential for how we study, and losing it would break workflows that took years to build.
Recently AI has made development easier and there are more free and convenient tools available, but dangerous programs and cyberattacks using AI are also on the rise, so regulations for developers are being tightened everywhere. Advanced AI generated content and automation have made it more difficult to distinguish between humans and AI.
Probably the only way to prevent this is through strict identity verification and high fees, because malicious developers and spammers are basically unable to do so. They are committing crimes so they cannot verify their identities, or if they were to invest money and effort into creating a large number of spam accounts they would end up losing money so they don’t do it.
Other security measures often don’t work. Even when ethical developers come up with workarounds that don’t require authentication or are free they often become unusable almost immediately because malicious developers quickly copy those methods. I think it is unlikely that they will relax these regulations in the future, risks and incidents are increasing every year as AI capabilities improve. (my guess is that it might eventually become a really strict system like a driver’s license.)
I think one way for Anki volunteers to get around these restrictions is to collaborate with trusted developers or groups. e.g. groups like Ankihub and Ankizin are collectives of medical professionals who support volunteer activities and their members identities are publicly known. Also the core developers of AnkiDroid are professional programmers trusted by the Anki community for many years. If volunteers receive financial support from them or if they release the program on their behalf it may be possible to release it even without a budget or proof.
These restrictions are a nuisance for developers but I think they are beneficial for end users, the average user cannot distinguish between dangerous programs and safe ones like developers do. In the case of Anki add-ons there are already incidents where non-developer users have inadvertently used or shared obvious malware. So I think the safest approach for typical learners and students is to completely separate tools that are highly trustworthy from those that are not, IMO security is more important than convenience.
Google doesn’t care about anyone’s safety. Many apps on the play store are designed to make their users addicted and keep squeezing money out of them.
It’s also none of their business to “protect” users. We already have to give explicit permission for apps to allow them to install apks.
Some apps on the play store “aren’t available in my region” or “are designed for older Android version”. Imagine if it becomes impossible for me to install them because Google says so (they might eventually remove the developer options workaround).
That said, there’s probably nothing we can do to stop this.
You will be able to install “side-loaded” apps but you will need to assert that you know what you’re doing. See Android Developers Blog: Android developer verification: Balancing openness and choice with safety
*until Google inevitably removes that workaround.
