I don’t think it will automatically uninstall sideloaded apps in your phone, it simply prevent sideloading from unregistered developers. There is an “official” way to circumvent it, doing it directly on the phone is a bit convoluted and require you to wait 24 hours, the other way need a PC and USB cable to install apps with adb–that one is just like usual.
If I disable updates, will that prevent Android from uninstalling my 3rd party apk?
I don’t think it will automatically uninstall sideloaded apps in your phone, it simply prevent sideloading from unregistered developers. There is an “official” way to circumvent it, doing it directly on the phone is a bit convoluted and require you to wait 24 hours, the other way need a PC and USB cable to install apps with
adb–that one is just like usual.https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/03/android-developer-verification.html
I wonder if f-droid will be able to function with only a 24 hour unlock. probably not.
The 24-hour wait time is once only
unless you choose the option to only unlock it for 24 hours. which, honestly, could make sense for the technically illiterate.