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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

#91

Post by Wowfunhappy »

BubuIIC wrote: post #49
rndgermandude wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The real benefit of the F-Droid ecosystem is that it's easy to host your own repository. And the client is explicitly designed to have multiple package sources avialable, so the developers of these proprietary apps can easily host their own repo. Afaik there's no readily available payment system. It's not impossible to build one and integrate it with F-Droid though I think.

Oh, so it's like Cydia then!

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

#92

Post by tialaramex »

michaelt wrote: post #57
vbsteven wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was afraid of having to do exactly that, create a new app with a new name and move all of the customers over... I ended up fixing it eventually by somehow clearing all versions in alpha/beta channels and uploading a new fixed version without the SMS permission with increased version number multiple times, and then bubbling that up to production. For reference, we only used READ SMS permission in this app to improve…

we only used READ SMS permission in this app to improve the phone number validation process What's wrong with the SMS Retriever API [1] which seems to be designed explicitly for this purpose? [1] https://developers.google.com/identity/sms-retriever/overvie...

Yes! This kind of thing is what we want to see _more_ of in phone permissions.

Remember how crazy it was back when "flashlight" was an app on your phone that you had to give the "camera" permission to this random crappy app because the lamp is built into the camera and so that's the permission needed?

The same is true for so many features in so many apps, why does this app say it needs permission to _make phone calls_ when it's actually just measuring 3G signal strength? Why does this other one want to "read and write files" when actually it just wants somewhere to store a 40 byte ID?

In some cases the answer is Android / iOS didn't create the right permissions to reflect what's actually needed. But in plenty of others the problem is app developers don't use what is offered because they found a "simple" way (often pasted from a 5 year old Stack Overflow answer) to achieve what they wanted.

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

#93

Post by [deleted] »

_ylmx wrote: post #88
jraph wrote: post #75

So KDE Connect (with all features) joins NewPipe, AdAway and other amazing Android applications that are on F-Droid and not on Google Play.

Any other great apps on F-Droid? I'm using all of the above except AdAway and: - Orgzly: Org-mode brought to your phone. I use it for capturing TODOs and push notifications for reminders. - Revolution IRC: IRC Client - Syncthing: Syncs files between my computer and phone. Mostly used for .org files - Goodtime: Pomodoro technique time-management - Loop Habit Tracker: Track habits (reading, exercise, etc.) - Slide for…

[deleted]

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

#94

Post by caseymarquis »

crottypeter wrote: post #5
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.

Believe it or not, Joe public hasn't heard of f-droid. Google Play is the app store for most android users (at least in the west).

I'm a software developer. I'm on HN daily, trying to keep tabs on new technology and such. I used to make android games as a hobby 8 years ago. I'm posting this from an android phone. I hadn't heard of f-droid until just now.

As an aside, there must be a better way to keep track of new technologies. I hate not recognizing something important.

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

#95

Post by half-kh-hacker »

Jedd wrote: post #82

KDE Connect is one of my top five favourite / essential apps. Sure, I'm on KDE desktop (have been since the late 1990's) so I'm aware I'm in the (tiny) minority, but the functionality is hard, perhaps impossible, to beat. This kind of craziness isn't helping anyone.

I don't use KDE as a desktop environment, but KDEConnect works just fine outside of KDE in my experience.

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

#96

Post by _ylmx »

tyfon wrote: post #2

And google is supposed to launch a gaming console today that streams from the cloud. It's bound to generate a ton of support cases, I wonder how they will handle that. I also wonder how they deal with the countries that require a publicly listed phone number and address to be able to contact them.

I always find it slightly funny that there is a movie [1] about working at Google and a big part of the challenge is how they handle support cases.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2234155/

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

#97

Post by Svoka »

jasonvorhe wrote: post #37
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.

What about my google account? Would it run, but I won't be able to access it?

I think Google lost trust, which is hard thing to get back. I just speaking how I feel. And I don't get such feel using AWS.

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

#99

Post by blunte »

stevehawk wrote: post #77
noobermin wrote: post #42

Remember this the next time you don't get that job at Google. Somehow the most selective and elite of tech institutions can't bother to do customer service.

It's one of the reasons I'm convinced that Google et al don't hire the best engineers/programmers, but really just the best interviewers.

This is not a Google engineer problem - it's a Google management problem.

Managers, theoretically from the top down, are deciding how to allocate resources (as in, almost no live customer service people), what automated policies to put in, etc.

I think there's a fundamental problem with any company that refuses to provide some human contact for problem resolution (with customers, partners, vendors, etc.)

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

#100

Post by stonogo »

tetromino_ wrote: post #87
rauhl wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anything that is behind such a whitelist should be a userland permission, approved (or not) by the end user, not Google. You’re assuming that Google’s desire here is to protect the user. I don’t think that’s the case: I think that their desire is to control the user. Cf. how Android presents the user with a warning if he installs his own trusted HTTPS certificate (and how newer version of Android simply ignore his…

Try to consider the effect not just on yourself and the tiny number of people exactly like yourself, but on average non-technical users who were getting socially engineered into exposing their passwords and nudes to their bosses, stalkers, criminals, and public morality enforcers.

Yeah, why think about yourself instead of this handy strawman?
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