It's not side loading. It is just installing and running. I swear all this 'for your benefit' crap is going to relegate all of our computing hardware to the status of dumb terminal before long.
Note how the term 'side loading' is already weighted against you doing it, it is supposed to make you feel you're doing something that is borderline illegal even if it is still possible and that you are bypassing safeguards that would stop you from doing this stupid thing if you only took the proper route.
Agreed. I refuse to use the terms "rooting" and "jailbreaking" in professional environments, I always use terms like "admin access to the mobile device".
Because that's what it is, despite the extremely successful campaign to paint people who want admin access on their mobile computers to be painted in the same light as pirates.
It’s called that because you used to download the apks on a separate computer and then load them onto the phone, it has nothing to do with sounding illegal
Back in the day it wasn’t the norm though. We plugged our phones into our computers to manage media, jailbreak them, install apps downloaded from forums, etc.
Hell, people used to use iTunes to manage the apps on their iPhone and organize their Home Screen.
I did not check but I think that the term may be older than Android, iirc on Symbian phones installing custom Java applets required a computer to place the package on the phone.
Some devices don't have browsers, some are locked-down and only support one app store, or sideloading via adb, sometimes the UX is better (SideQuest for the Meta Quest).
Note how the term 'side loading' is already weighted against you doing it, it is supposed to make you feel you're doing something that is borderline illegal even if it is still possible and that you are bypassing safeguards that would stop you from doing this stupid thing if you only took the proper route.