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Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

androidauthority.com

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Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

#51

Post by yieldcrv »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #12

Google's long term strategy with Android is baffling to me. Apple has had better mobile hardware for years. Apple has higher consumer trust. Apple has better app selection (for most people). Apple has been increasingly implementing the core features that differentiate Android devices, like USB-C and RCS. Every Android user lost to the increasing iOS market share is another customer Google has to pay exorbitant fees t…

This is a legitimately crazy take, yes the differentiations are less but how we got there isn’t so altruistic

I’m firmly in the Apple ecosystem and every one of those examples were not Apple’s unilateral decision

I think seeing the noose circling around both Apple and Google’s necks better explains the quagmire that Google is in

Apple was getting ahead of a European consumer protection ruling to switch to a single interoperable cable, USBC was there

Apple and Google worked to make RCS better for years, as Apple was ignoring it and Google was using a non-standard RCS

Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

#53

Post by guerrilla »

nozzlegear wrote: post #40
chii wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they think the audience is now fully captive. the audience is captive. Do you have a choice to move from android, if you didnt want to have an apple device? Do you want to use a different search engine other than google? Is there another email provider than gmail (for the non-technical person - i know you can run your own). Is there another browser other than chrome (and dont say firefox or edge - because both don'…

> Do you have a choice to move from android, if you didnt want to have an apple device? Not wanting and not having a choice are two different things. > Do you want to use a different search engine other than google? Is there another email provider than gmail (for the non-technical person - i know you can run your own) My wife uses ddg and outlook, she's non-technical. I convinced her to use ddg but she's always used…

> My wife uses ddg and outlook, she's non-technical

My mom too. The difference though is that they have us. Most people don't.

Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

#54

Post by ffsm8 »

bluescrn wrote: post #47
jacquesm wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why the surprise, they do the same with search, they do the same with their Google workspace (the degree to which they are pushing AI is really hurting the product). Google stopped being aware of their customer's needs a really long time ago, they are so arrogant they think the audience is now fully captive.

> they think the audience is now fully captive. It is, for the large sub-$800 segment of the smartphone market.

you mean sub $599, right?

https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-16e

Which is still a valid argument, the number is just lower. And the UX on these sub 600 devices have definitely gotten worse over the last 5 years too... Likely because Google isn't really targeting that price point anymore, so Android isn't getting enough optimization to be viable on underpowered devices.

That was different in 2010-2020

Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

#56

Post by onli »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #12

Google's long term strategy with Android is baffling to me. Apple has had better mobile hardware for years. Apple has higher consumer trust. Apple has better app selection (for most people). Apple has been increasingly implementing the core features that differentiate Android devices, like USB-C and RCS. Every Android user lost to the increasing iOS market share is another customer Google has to pay exorbitant fees t…

I don't see any iOS advantage with the apps anymore. That was maybe true in the very beginning, during the gold rush time of the app store. But not since then. In which category are there better iOS apps? Browsers? No, strictly worse. Youtube app? No, worse. Texting? Worse or equal (Whatsapp). Podcast client? I assume worse, since there is no Antenna Pod. Social media apps? The iOS variants of those apps are afaik in no way better. What else is there, where is the advantage?

Also, while the Play store is an equally ad-riddled and unsearchable hellhole, at least Android does have with F-Droid a high quality alternative. iOS has nothing.

But sure, removing the F-Droid advantage can only hurt Android, the direction of your comment still stands.

Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

#58

Post by gambiting »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #12

Google's long term strategy with Android is baffling to me. Apple has had better mobile hardware for years. Apple has higher consumer trust. Apple has better app selection (for most people). Apple has been increasingly implementing the core features that differentiate Android devices, like USB-C and RCS. Every Android user lost to the increasing iOS market share is another customer Google has to pay exorbitant fees t…

>>Apple has had better mobile hardware for years

Are you joking? Look at the latest Xiaomi, Oppo and other Chinese manufacturers, Apple would love to have the hardware they are shipping right now. From batteries to cameras and screens, apple is way behind on hardware tech. Yeah they are better than Samsung - but Samsung has also massively fallen behind what's the state of the art.

>>is another customer Google has to pay exorbitant fees to a competitor to access.

Last time I checked, it's apple paying Google, billions of dollars a year? And it will be even more now that Apple announced they are going to use Gemini as their AI base model.

Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

#59

Post by BatteryMountain »

If the make sideloading high-friction, either via account-bound or apk upload or permissions from MNO/ISP, I will leave android. I have a bunch of my own apps that only I use, not released to the public, if I cannot use them, I have zero reason to stay on android.

I think one of the reasons they want to lockdown the system is to prevent guys like me from locking THEM out of my home/ecosystems, as and example, I build my own launchers, specifically for TCL TV's, which runs Android TV and has Developer Mode + adb. Which means I remove all the bloat & ad garbage, which they want to prevent.

We will get to the point where google will remove your ability to set custom dns servers and only use theirs.. just wait & see friends.

Anywhoo, when this side loading fence materializes, I will jump ship to apple.

Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

#60

Post by reddalo »

PunchTornado wrote: post #57

I agree with high friction sideloading. it is the best of both worlds. no friction sideloading is too easily exploited by scammers. having a member of my family exposed to this kind of thing in the past taught me some things.

I don't agree with the word "sideloading" though. It's just _installing_.
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