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

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

#291

Post by avcloudy »

fruitworks wrote: post #238
avcloudy wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really ideology driven push. I don't think you really think the iOS browsers are worse , there's just less choice, because they all fundamentally use WebKit. Having to use Chromium is a worse experience, and not being able to use Gecko under Firefox is not a clear upgrade - particularly as WebKit is so tightly integrated with the hardware, leading to less battery use. If you really don't like WebKit for wha…

no ublock How can whatsapp be better? Android at least has features like scoped storage. Where is the ios equivalent of newpipe? Where is the iOS equivalent of pojavlauncher? where is the iOS equivalent of libretorrent or syncthing? Open source is essentially banned on iOS. What is the advantage of iOS? "Feels smoother"? Totally subjective.

Safari just got uBlock back!

iOS isn't particularly open source friendly, but mostly people don't do it because of personal incentives, not because it can't be done.

It's subjective, and I get that, but what you miss is that features are subjective too. Missing parity apps are only relevant when you care about that feature; at no point in my life have I ever thought my life would be better or more convenient if I could only torrent on my phone.

But having an app that is responsive and works well has made my life better. Standing outside a bar in the rain trying to get a stupid Covid app to work, not work well, just work, on Android has made my life worse.

(Ironically, I've kind of noticed this is part of the Unix ethos writ small: do one thing and do it well. It's not exact, and iOS for sure has tons of crud everything apps. And they sure don't work together! I just think it's amusing.)

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

#292

Post by PlatoIsADisease »

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.

No Aux port, no usb. Slow phone with slow animations. But maybe this is fixed, its been 10 years.

>Apple has higher consumer trust.

lmao, this is just a user error problem. None have trust. If they trust, yikes. Thats a negative that Apple can brainwash people.

>Apple has better app selection (for most people).

Solid no here. Being able to install stuff from fdroid is amazing.

>Apple has been increasingly implementing the core features that differentiate Android devices

As long as you are okay with waiting 4 years. Sure.

You forgot to mention how poor iPhone security is. People have died due to Apple's poor security.

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

#293

Post by PlatoIsADisease »

pjmlp wrote: post #39
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…

Except only a few countries in the world have wages where their citizens can afford Apple. While I can afford Apple, out of principle I am not buying anything above 300 euros, that requires me to also buy another computer for hobby coding, and a dev license. All my use of Apple hardware is via projects where pool devices are assigned to the delivery team.

This is one of Apple's marketing strategy.

Faux luxury.

Totally works in the US too on teens, moms, and lower middle class people.

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

#294

Post by mexicocitinluez »

manuelabeledo wrote: post #218
onli wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The iOS YouTube app is not worse than the one in Android. Texting in iOS is arguably better or, at the very least, there is one more app to choose (Messages). And I’m curious to know what makes Antenna Pod so much better than the thousands of other podcast apps out there. Social media apps have historically been worse in Android, because of lax app and privacy controls. > What else is there, where is the advantage? P…

> Personally, I’d rather not have Google buried deep inside all aspects of my phone.

I mean, one could say the exact same thing but swapping Google with Apple.

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

#295

Post by mexicocitinluez »

clickety_clack wrote: post #286
onli wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I switched from Android to iPhone last year, and this just isn’t true. There’s so many tiny issues with android apps that just don’t exist on iPhone, because the android apps have to work on all these different devices. You don’t even have to look for the kinds of apps you’re talking about because things like Safari and Apple Podcasts work really well. I know people have a lot of complaints, but things on the iPhone…

> because things like Safari ...work really well

Are we living in the same universe? We manage a fleet of tablets (both Apple and Android) for a healthcare company whose EMR is web-based. And because of that Sarafi has made our lives miserable. So much so that we're migrating to Chromebooks.

I've been developing for the web for 15 years. The first half was spent battling Internet Explorer. Now it's Safari.

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

#296

Post by HPsquared »

clickety_clack wrote: post #286
onli wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I switched from Android to iPhone last year, and this just isn’t true. There’s so many tiny issues with android apps that just don’t exist on iPhone, because the android apps have to work on all these different devices. You don’t even have to look for the kinds of apps you’re talking about because things like Safari and Apple Podcasts work really well. I know people have a lot of complaints, but things on the iPhone…

iOS is great if you only want the parts that "just work", and don't need any of the things Android has that "just don't work" on iOS.

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

#297

Post by weazl »

AlexandrB wrote: post #276
potatoproduct wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

""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."" You mean Apple has been forced by regulators to implement core features like USB-C and RCS? https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-s... https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32...

Saying they were forced to implement USB-C is really overstating things. Apple loooved USB-C - so much so that their ill-fated butterfly switch laptops went all-in on it. They also helped design it. It's highly likely they were planning a move to USB-C anyway and the EU just pushed it forward a year.

This is untrue. Apple was fighting EU the entire time trying to avoid a switch to USB-C on iPhones. EU representatives were publicly critical of Apple, eventually Apple was forced to give in.

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

#298

Post by tomhow »

faust201 wrote: post #126
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.

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

#299

Post by pjmlp »

necovek wrote: post #161
pjmlp wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many countries prefer the freedom of pre-pay/post-pay than being bound by contracts though. Not everyone has the US culture of running their life on credit. Because when life changes, it isn't only their phone they lose. The only single time I had a contract, because it was the only way to get a Nokia N70, I learnt never to do another one ever again.

Are you sure it is your whole country or it's you? I mostly buy my phones outright too, but I am under no impression that everybody else does it as well.

The planet is full of such countries, it isn't only me.

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

#300

Post by tomhow »

B1FIDO wrote: post #184
goldenarm wrote: post #182

Sideloading is a neologism to scare users and lawmakers, it just means "Installing software" and should be a basic right. Also software installation in Android has been high friction for a while. Installing an APK on my phone is at least 10 clicks.

[flagged]

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