Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play Store

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 988 posts

Re: Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play Store

#221

Post by JJJollyjim »

onethought wrote: post #171
young_unixer wrote: post #160

I hope more apps start allowing to directly download an .apk file from their website. I don't have Google Play Services or the Play store installed on my phone nor do I want to install them. Yes, it's my responsibility to update the app, whatever, just give me the file.

Is there a standard that could verify an apk against a certificate? ... or an I just describing building an alternative play store?

Android's has an app signing system which isn't dependent on Google Play. Updates to a given app have to be signed with the same certificate as previous versions.

Re: Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play Store

#222

Post by marcthe12 »

illustriousbear wrote: post #49
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'You can't change how they operate' We used yo have laws.. And opting out is literslly impossible, there are people and authorities i -have-to- communicate with, and its impossible outside those platforms

What people and authorities? I stopped using these services and told people to contact me via sms or signal. No problems so far. The people who won't make that extra step aren't worth my time because clearly I'm not worth their time.

In my case, unofficial communication channel for college/school/job. You can handle it just with offical email and classes or phone but since everyone is on 1 app and basically no one on any other you loose out anything which is not necessary but not helpful. And goodluck convincing a non tech boss or several profs to switch. This is kinda the issue with network effects.

Re: Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play Store

#223

Post by AWildC182 »

nickysielicki wrote: post #179

A lot of people seem to believe that there’s much more to this than there really is. Google has hired a bunch of 28 year old kids in HR and PR, that never used Usenet, that never used IRC, that barely remember AIM, that had a smartphone before they had their own laptop, that don’t understand the internet or technology . And they’re the ones making these decisions. There aren’t rooms full of Google PMs and programmers…

I'm in that age bracket, I remember the open internet. I wouldn't get super ageist about it, but I think the point still stands. Google just wants to believe the internet is for megacorps and everyone who isn't on a mega platform doesn't belong connected to it.

Re: Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play Store

#224

Post by perryizgr8 »

Huh! That's unfortunate. But in the end it's Google's platform and they have the right to kick you out for any or without any reason and/or recourse. If Element doesn't like it they can just make their own Android, play store and sell billions of phones around the world. It's a non-issue.

Re: Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play Store

#225

Post by boomboomsubban »

sova wrote: post #39
boomboomsubban wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a shame nobody saw this coming fourty years ago and devoted his life to the cause.

The infrastructure is run by private parties -- but since the advent of encryption it ought be possible to lay down some basic principles or precepts of the online denizen. "The Right to be Forgotten" is a strong step in the right direction, but anonymity sometimes makes people act rashly -- which reminds me of the need for Nettiquette. I believe the difficulty comes in guaranteeing backdoors for law-enforcement and…

Free software. Guaranteeing backdoors is a terrible strategy that should not even be considered.

Re: Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play Store

#226

Post by swiley »

29athrowaway wrote: post #209

Just a reminder you can install the APK and there's nothing they can do about it. Not a friendly experience, but not insanely hard either.

Not if you're using outlook with certain configurations that require disabling sideloading. Also they're really torquing down on the API and making it harder and harder to build useful apps outside the play store. I'm not an android developer but my understanding is that notifications are starting to look much more like iOS for example.

Re: Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play Store

#228

Post by mrec »

swiley wrote: post #215
hda2 wrote: post #35

OEMs and software vendors have been pushing hard towards locking-down and controlling people's computing devices and people have largely been indifferent. It genuinely seemed all was going to be lost until the tech industry went crazy exercising their control. Their recent (and imo unjustifiable) actions have clearly demonstrated to everyone what it means to hand over control. It remains to be seen whether people wil…

People on here think that most "normal" people are going to figure out how to sideload apps. No. I visited my parents church at the beginning of this year and very few people were talking about that. What they were talking about is giving up on smartphones and social media altogether which is probably not a bad idea.

> What they were talking about is giving up on smartphones and social media altogether

That's incredibly encouraging to hear. It seems to be a common feature of "I quit Facebook/Twitter/whatever" accounts that once you break the immediate addiction there's no real urge to go back, so if this does happen it should have a decent chance of sticking.

(And as a mobile refusenik I sometimes feel like the last holdout left, so a bit of company would be nice.)

Re: Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play Store

#229

Post by swiley »

lawl wrote: post #102
ycombigator wrote: post #92

Stop using apps whenever you can. Use your browser.

Which one? The one also made by Google, the one paid for by Google, ones of those based on the one made by Google, or the one made by the other smartphone OS owner with a walled garden?

Here's a short list of some browser engines that are not based on google's or paid for by google:

Webkit: [1] It's a thousand times easier to compile and was the original base for chromium

Servo: [2] This is much more recent, I haven't looked lately (until today) but it looks to be making rapid forward progress

Elinks: [3] and friends, these are more capable than you'd think (hackernews works, even if you don't build it with javascript enabled.)

Also it's surprisingly easy to write your own engine, it's just keeping up with some of the more political stupidity/abuse is hard.

[3] http://elinks.or.cz/

[2] https://servo.org/

[1] https://webkit.org/

Re: Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play Store

#230

Post by 8note »

wsc981 wrote: post #176
young_unixer wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition. This is Google just being enormous assholes. Nothing to do with fascism.

Mussolini had a somewhat different view, quote: >”Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." See: https://roanoke.com/news/local/quote-of-the-day-benito-musso...

What would Mussolini have thought about filling the Italian government with brits or Germans?

They definitely had the Italian enthocentrism with the trying to recreate the Roman Empire thing

Post reply on HN