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Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

gultsch.social

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Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#31

Post by eurekin »

Dibby053 wrote: post #28
eurekin wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pardon for a tangent! I've been so full of missing and delayed notifications I just bought an iPhone, which has zero issues with it, with zero configuration. Still, as I made a few really small android apps in the past, this has been a sticking point for me for years. Is it possible to write an app that can notify at ANY time? Let's say I want to monitor my self-hosted infrastructure. On an iPhone I get e-mail alerts…

Ntfy.sh seems to work perfectly on stock Android without firebase/GSF. I do have "unrestricted" enabled in app settings but it doesn't seem to impact battery life in a noticeable way. I never missed any notifications. Once you leave AOSP-land it can be more tricky, https://dontkillmyapp.com/ has more info if you're interested.

Thank you!

This actually looks very relevant [1]:

> Even disabling the system battery restrictions does not save the app from being killed. Let's find out, if it is a bug or a feature... Here you can read more details

I have Samsung s21; after years of fighting it (3 samsungs) I'm welcome to a bug explanation

- [1] https://dontkillmyapp.com/samsung#:~:text=Even%20disabling%2...

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#32

Post by londons_explore »

eurekin wrote: post #22
kaptainscarlet wrote: post #21

XMPP as a protocol is pretty much dead on Android with all the battery optimisations in the newer versions. You can't get a decent user experience unless you integrate it with Firebase.

Pardon for a tangent! I've been so full of missing and delayed notifications I just bought an iPhone, which has zero issues with it, with zero configuration. Still, as I made a few really small android apps in the past, this has been a sticking point for me for years. Is it possible to write an app that can notify at ANY time? Let's say I want to monitor my self-hosted infrastructure. On an iPhone I get e-mail alerts…

iphone doesn't solve it... XMPP apps on iphone just use a server to be your agent and send push notifications instead.

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#33

Post by tenebrisalietum »

doublerabbit wrote: post #7

[flagged]

Well if you can get punch cards over smoke signals connected to a serial port somehow, you could do UUCP over it.

> I'm waiting until you have fees to open a jpg. Pay-per jpeg. PPJ

Imagine a future where all video is cloud based and is rendered by remote GPU farms and you are charged per pixel rendered (PPR). Moving your mouse will incur changes.

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#34

Post by euniceee3 »

malfist wrote: post #26
Dibby053 wrote: post #11

I use an open source SPAM call blocker (Yet another call blocker), which works fairly OK by querying a local spam phone number database. Recently Google Play decided to display a permanent notification prompting me to uninstall that "dangerous" app because it could "damage" my device. It's impossible to disable this notification. This app hasn't been updated in years. It has no ads. The only network request it makes…

Check out the Aurora store, it's a drop in replacement for the play store withot the Google nonsense. I started using it after Google refused to let me install watch faces, because the apps hadn't been updated for foldable phones.

100 times over. It is possible to run Graphene then install DuckDuckGo browser then install F-Droid, then install Aurora, then you can have a de-Googled phone!

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#35

Post by feitingen »

bertman wrote: post #2

Developer: "Google has just removed #Conversations_im from the Play Store because they think we are uploading the user’s contact list. We don’t." and "To be clear: They didn’t just reject an update. They outright removed the app entirely. Otherwise my plan B would have been to remove the contacts permission which is used to display the name and profile picture locally if the XMPP address matches an entry in the users…

That's a bit funny since i get notifications on my phone from google assistant (which I've disabled) about birthdays of my contacts, and I've explicitly disabled contacts access for all google apps on my phone.

Feels like a slap in the face every time.

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#36

Post by nonrandomstring »

Dibby053 wrote: post #11

I use an open source SPAM call blocker (Yet another call blocker), which works fairly OK by querying a local spam phone number database. Recently Google Play decided to display a permanent notification prompting me to uninstall that "dangerous" app because it could "damage" my device. It's impossible to disable this notification. This app hasn't been updated in years. It has no ads. The only network request it makes…

Fake security is a big problem to those of us who are concerned with real security.

Mischievous and dishonest use of "security" as an cover by policy bullies, profiteers and other gangsters is as much a threat as worms, viruses, zero-days, phishing scams, data leaks all other kinds of actual security problem.

Not least because it weakens rational expectations and evaluations of security and substitutes blind trust in (obviously untrustworthy) entities.

Sadly, It's a powerful lever because the average person knows so little about computer security and is easily bamboozled by scare-mongers. Indeed, many phishing and malware scams start with a pop-up saying; "Security Risk! You must update now!"

It is a form of extremely dangerous disinformation. For companies like Google to engage in it for profit is treacherous and reckless.

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#37

Post by eurekin »

londons_explore wrote: post #32
eurekin wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pardon for a tangent! I've been so full of missing and delayed notifications I just bought an iPhone, which has zero issues with it, with zero configuration. Still, as I made a few really small android apps in the past, this has been a sticking point for me for years. Is it possible to write an app that can notify at ANY time? Let's say I want to monitor my self-hosted infrastructure. On an iPhone I get e-mail alerts…

iphone doesn't solve it... XMPP apps on iphone just use a server to be your agent and send push notifications instead.

It solved "delayed notifications" for me, for certain: I still have original Samsung next to iPhone and it's clear as day:

- iPhone rings, Samsung nothing

- I wait few minutes just to be sure and pick up Samsung - immediately after picking it up the notification shows up, with the exact timestamp of the moment I picked it up

That's why I called it a tangent to XMPP

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#38

Post by madeofpalk »

carstenhag wrote: post #27
MattJ100 wrote: post #5

This has been happening to a bunch of XMPP apps recently, and as a maintainer of another one (which closely based on Conversations) I'm fearing the worst next time I submit an update. The worst part is the lack of communication from Google about what they think the problem is. There are plenty of apps that do actually upload contact lists to servers (hi WhatsApp, etc.), and they are still listed on the store. Many XM…

Especially tiktok is still live, and there it's super obvious they upload the contact list. First: they ask you. More importantly though: you don't even need to search for someone or someone's phone. You open the app and get 3 people suggested you never even knew had a tiktok account. Really really creepy when you just exchanged numbers with someone and you can see all their 50 tiktoks. Happened to me with a girl I m…

This happens the other way around as well (and is why, imho, both Android and iOS should flat out remove the capability from their platforms) - if TikTok knows your phone number for whatever reason, and the OTHER person uploads their contacts with you in it, that's enough to create the connection and start prompting you to friend them.

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#40

Post by kalleboo »

Dibby053 wrote: post #11

I use an open source SPAM call blocker (Yet another call blocker), which works fairly OK by querying a local spam phone number database. Recently Google Play decided to display a permanent notification prompting me to uninstall that "dangerous" app because it could "damage" my device. It's impossible to disable this notification. This app hasn't been updated in years. It has no ads. The only network request it makes…

I’m not an android user but from what I've understood is that Google is desperate to deprecate apps that were compiled for earlier Android SDKs before they introduced more iOS-style privacy APIs
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