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

Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

9to5google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 1001 posts

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#281

Post by al_borland »

gethly wrote: post #96

> Google will begin to verify the identities of developers distributing their apps on Android devices, not just those who distribute via the Play Store This is absolutely unacceptable. That's like you having to submit your personal details to Microsoft in order to just run a program on Windows. Absolutely nuts and it will not go as they think it will.

> will not go as they think it will.

How will it go? Where are people going to go? People who draw a hard line on this can’t go to iOS for more freedom. Linux phones aren’t ready for prime time. So what’s left? Going back to a flip phone that doesn’t even have the capability of running apps in the same class?

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#282

Post by faangguyindia »

gethly wrote: post #96

> Google will begin to verify the identities of developers distributing their apps on Android devices, not just those who distribute via the Play Store This is absolutely unacceptable. That's like you having to submit your personal details to Microsoft in order to just run a program on Windows. Absolutely nuts and it will not go as they think it will.

Doesn't macOs also requires this when you use stuff like keychain in apps? I remember signing my flutter macOS app with my info using xcode.

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#283

Post by grizzles »

This must be because of Epic's win in antitrust court.

What someone needs to do is create a "Store" browser that loads apps from random websites like https://site.tld/app.apk

You could manually parse AndroidManifest.xml and allow only apps that expose

I'm somewhat interested in doing this myself actually. What do people think?

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#286

Post by mrlatinos »

marcodiego wrote: post #200

How did we let this happen? Oh, yes... Actually I remember: it was a long slow series of accepting small artificial restrictions. I remember people laughing at me at the time. They said it won't matter, they didn't care, that I was paranoid... Now... Here we are.

We had no part in this. The blame lies squarely with Google and its employees, who trade away user freedom for profit and career gain. Many who are smart enough to know better but instead compromise their principles. It's just another symptom of late-stage capitalism.

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#287

Post by fluoridation »

Dragon0 wrote: post #263

DO NOT UPLOAD YOUR ID/INFO TO GOOGLE. I put my game on their app store some years ago, and they doxxed me right on the app store. Google posted my name and home address right on the game page. Not great when I was already receiving death threats! Later on, had a rando show up at 3AM one night and had to call the cops out. I moved after that. Google is absolutely not to be trusted to keep this data confidential. If Go…

What do you mean by "Google posted my name and address"? How? Why?

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#288

Post by dhx »

wvenable wrote: post #174

I predict Windows will end up going this route before Google backtracks on it. This is the future; partially fuelled by malware, partially fuelled by the desire for platform control, and partially fuelled by government regulation.

As an example of government regulation driving this change, see [1].

This regulation of NSW, Australia considers rooted devices with extra non-Google/non-Apple approved security features such as a duress/wipe PIN (a standard feature of GrapheneOS[2]) as a "dedicated encrypted criminal communication device". How the device is being used doesn't matter. It's how it _could_ be used.

[1] https://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/ca190...

[2] https://grapheneos.org/features#duress

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#289

Post by pier25 »

baby wrote: post #254
gethly wrote: post #96

> Google will begin to verify the identities of developers distributing their apps on Android devices, not just those who distribute via the Play Store This is absolutely unacceptable. That's like you having to submit your personal details to Microsoft in order to just run a program on Windows. Absolutely nuts and it will not go as they think it will.

They did it the right way for a very long time and yet people keep buying iPhones, I think I would do the same if I were them, users clearly don't seem to care about openness and freedom to use their devices however they want. I mean, people care about the color of archaic text messages. There is nothing to save.

Android has like 70-80% global market share.

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#290

Post by rpdillon »

zmmmmm wrote: post #183

The worst part is the Orwellian opening sentence they start with in their blog post [0]: > You shouldn’t have to choose between open and secure 2+2=5 Truly the end of an era. I've spent nearly two decades buying Android phones because of a single checkbox in settings that let me have the freedom I consider essential to any computing device that I own. In a way, it's liberating, I've missed out on a lot from the Apple…

Very much my exact feelings. I had the first Android phone ever and even wrote my own APKs and enjoyed the freedom of the mobile platform that let me install my own software. But it's been close to 20 years and maybe it's time to check out the other side, as much as I despise Apple's locked down ecosystem.
Post reply on HN