As a lot of you are aware of ATT Android phones can only install Market Apps over the air. There is a way to side load other apps while connected to a PC but that doesnt help my cause much. My companies customers need to install our app over the air. We prefer not to use the market because our app syncs back to our network. We dont want the possibility of hackers breaking our code and then opening up our network to attacks. I have tried some hacks that can turn this setting on in the devices, but it requires rooting which of course can void warranties and the exploits used could be patched in the future. I would like to know if there is any way around ATT's limitation so that we can enable the non market apps without rooting the device first. If thats not possible, then the 2nd alternative is to find a way to "hide" our app on the market so that it can only be found with a direct hyperlink to it. Probably not possible either but I have to ask. If anyone has any other alternatives for installing non market apps on ATT Android phones over the air, then please let me know. Thanks!
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Any reliable way to bypass ATT's lock down of installing non-market apps?
- Thread starter shanman
- Start date
I am not sure if this would work for your app, but you can get to market apps blocked by AT&T by removing the sim card and connecting the sim-less phone to the market via WiFi only. If there is a specific app in the market that you know AT&T blocks, I would be happy to test it for you.
Try http://androidforums.com/android-games/301330-dillo-hills-5.html#post2471190 the video in this link explains a way to do it. I am not on AT&T so I can't test.
Neither one these really helps me. Thanks for the replies though. Right now we just plan to make our app available as a download from our website. We need users to be able to go to the webpage on the device, click the link to download, and then install directly on the device. These two methods above require you to use wifi to get to an app on the market, or require you to connect the device to your pc to install it via usb. I fear that there is not work around for the way that we need to download and install our app. Any other suggestions?
Not really. The best suggestion would be to suggest to your customers to NOT get AT&T devices, or if they must use AT&T, to buy a Vanilla Android phone, and use it on AT&T.
The other option would be to put it on the market, but require a license key to even start the app. And, security wise, your app should only be talking to a web server (Using SOAP, XML, JSON or some other web enabled data interchange format), which would then communicate with back-end servers in your internal tier.
So, no matter what, your app should be designed for N-tier network communication.
I'm not sure what you fear is about releasing the app on the market, if you allow the app to be downloaded from your site it would still be available to the same people hackers would just have to go to your site to get the app. I am not aware of what your company is but more than likely your customers can go somewhere else to get the same or simmilar product so you are hurting yourself by not allowing a large portion of Android users access to the app by only making it available by sideloading. You can also think of the market as a potential place to get new customers. Lets say you are a ebook store. People search the market for ebook and they see your app, you can potentially gain a new customer, if they don't see your app they will likely use another ebook app available with the attached store.