My worry here is how the big apps will just publish instructions on how to sideload and then escape the controls and safety that the App Store provides. We know from years of phishing attacks how easy it is to convince people to click links to non-official sites. The App Store already is doing a poor job at trying to prevent copycat apps, this makes it so much worse.

For the majority of my family the App Store provides a huge amount of safety, as no cost. They have no concept of the protections it provides, but equally will just blindly follow instructions online as well.

My mother was convinced for years her iMac and MacBook were from Microsoft because every doc she opened said "Microsoft Windows" and she knows Microsoft.

Weren't Facebook caught teaching people to use TestFlight to install VPNs to circumvent rules before? This feels like it'll play out similarly to Binance teaching users to install VPNs to circumvent trading controls, for the big official apps, and simultaneously open the floodgates to a ton of spam/phishing/fake apps.

Facebook/TikTok/etc just have to say something like "Here's our fancy new version and feature X is only available when you follow these new install instructions" and it'll happen.

Then it'll normalize it, which is the worst outcome.