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KDE Connect removed from Google Play store for violating new policy on SMS

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Re: KDE Connect removed from Google Play store for violating new policy on SMS

#31

Post by Operyl »

wy6psk wrote: post #25
quelltext wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That version has the SMS feature removed.

Yes but the tweet says that Google 1) completely removed the app and 2) is ignoring their calls for support. Which seems to be false.

Yes, notice that it’s several hours since the tweet. They’ve obviously been able to work around issue after issue, but the problem still exists: they are a companion app and should not have been forced to remove the SMS feature. And as far as I can tell, google is still not supporting them, so how is that false?

Re: KDE Connect removed from Google Play store for violating new policy on SMS

#32

Post by hajhatten »

StreamBright wrote: post #15
vbsteven wrote: post #3

A couple weeks ago Google removed one of my apps for the same violation. I rebuilt the same application with the SMS feature removed and the Play Store Developer Console was very unclear and buggy on how to resolve the issue and get my app out of the rejected status. I spent the better part of 2 hours just to get everything up and running again and it's frustrating to know that you cannot easily contact anyone @ Goog…

The #1 reason I do not recommend Google to work with for anybody. The users are just accidental for them.

Youtube is another prime example of this. Just look how they've treated even their biggest content creators when it comes to copystriking and user comments (something they have no control over). Users are just a nuisance.

Re: KDE Connect removed from Google Play store for violating new policy on SMS

#33

Post by nukeop »

Horror stories like this one crop up every now and then. The other time they locked all the G Suite accounts of an entire company just because one of the employees has made a couple of bad chargebacks for some Android apps on his private account that was supplied as a recovery email for his company account. And they didn't even provide a reason, the company had to investigate and find out on their own.

Re: KDE Connect removed from Google Play store for violating new policy on SMS

#34

Post by djsumdog »

My current phone has been falling apart for a while and I've already replaced the back 3 times and the camera. With the battery going out and the back starting to crack again under the case, I decided I'm getting sick of Android.

My next device needs to be something I can easily run Plasma on. Maybe I'll pre-order a Purism phone. I want a real open source phone, similar to running a Linux distro on my PC in the late 90s.

I'm willing to write applications to fill in the gaps for my needs to get away from the toxic Google ecosystem. I want a phone with real open source software, not some crippled Android minus the Play store.

Re: KDE Connect removed from Google Play store for violating new policy on SMS

#35

Post by mgkimsal »

vbsteven wrote: post #3

A couple weeks ago Google removed one of my apps for the same violation. I rebuilt the same application with the SMS feature removed and the Play Store Developer Console was very unclear and buggy on how to resolve the issue and get my app out of the rejected status. I spent the better part of 2 hours just to get everything up and running again and it's frustrating to know that you cannot easily contact anyone @ Goog…

"I rebuilt the same application with the SMS feature removed and the Play Store Developer Console was very unclear and buggy on how to resolve the issue and get my app out of the rejected status."

Holy cow I had the same issue. Ended up having to just make a brand new one with a new name. It was a horrible experience.

A version on a beta channel had SMS permissions requested, but there was no way to get rid of it. You can never just delete a version of something, only replace it. But you couldn't 'replace' until you'd 'fixed' the problem of the SMS perms.

What they were asking for was a description of the fix, a login/password to view the fix, a video of the old and fixed versions in action and some checkboxes stating that I accepted the new SMS policy. Except... the existing versions didn't have any SMS functionality in the first place. There was no way to 'video' a fix for a problem that never existed.

But it was worse, and I forget exactly how. I could never get it to accept a new uploaded version because an existing version somewhere wasn't 'fixed'. I think this was part of it. There was a 'beta' channel version, and regular channel version, and each one wouldn't accept an update of a new version because there was still a 'broken' version on the account somewhere.

Truly a horrible experience.

Re: KDE Connect removed from Google Play store for violating new policy on SMS

#36

Post by rndgermandude »

enriquto wrote: post #4

Why do people still use the "play store" when other repositories like f-droid are arguably better and perfectly available? This is beyond me. The terms of service of the google play store are callous and unacceptable.

f-droid isn't strictly better. It isn't really an alternative as a store for a ton of apps, as it will only accept open source apps as a matter of policy. Which is certainly their prerogative and might be good enough for some people.

But I use some apps that are non-free and are perfectly fine with those apps being non-free and want to use these apps anyway. So f-droid will never be a full replacement for me.

Re: KDE Connect removed from Google Play store for violating new policy on SMS

#37

Post by jasonvorhe »

Svoka wrote: post #27

I find it extremely scary to make business with Google. Their robot would get your account banned, all cloud, play and every other thing with it. Every hour it is banned would be lost money and lost customers. This is not my problem, really. It is Google's public image as I seen it soulless support for last 10 years, and stories like this pop up time to time. Too sad they pretty much locked in Android app market, and…

GCP will no longer just shut down your projects without a human approval.

Re: KDE Connect removed from Google Play store for violating new policy on SMS

#38

Post by westpfelia »

djsumdog wrote: post #34

My current phone has been falling apart for a while and I've already replaced the back 3 times and the camera. With the battery going out and the back starting to crack again under the case, I decided I'm getting sick of Android. My next device needs to be something I can easily run Plasma on. Maybe I'll pre-order a Purism phone. I want a real open source phone, similar to running a Linux distro on my PC in the late…

Sadly I think the Purism phone just was pushed back wasn't it?

Re: KDE Connect removed from Google Play store for violating new policy on SMS

#39

Post by icebraining »

williamdclt wrote: post #14
wy6psk wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is KDE Connect, not Snapchat. Joe Linuxonthedesktop has definitely heard of F-Droid.

I'm a linux user, I've never heard of it and the friction would make me hesitate

What friction? It's easier to use than the Play Store.

Re: KDE Connect removed from Google Play store for violating new policy on SMS

#40

Post by icebraining »

StreamBright wrote: post #16
enriquto wrote: post #4

Why do people still use the "play store" when other repositories like f-droid are arguably better and perfectly available? This is beyond me. The terms of service of the google play store are callous and unacceptable.

Because my mom is not an Android hacker.

You don't have to be an Android hacker. You don't even need root. It's just an app you install.
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