I'm with Google on this one. Idiots and old people (the public) use these devices daily. These are the very same people that send money to Nigerian royalty and expect to hear back about a great reward. This is mostly a CYA move with hard data behind it. If they completely removed side load, that would be a different story.
Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android
311–320 of 762 posts
Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android
#312Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Google core business is ads. It is not the same.
Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly, you’re so wrong about the app situation that it’s almost staggering. iOS apps tend to be more stable, better polished, have better integration with system features (like the Dynamic Island), and even often have more features. This isn’t even an unfounded opinion, it’s a material problem for Google and led them to vastly investing in automated testing and quality efforts App addressable user base is another…
FWIW, starting a sentence with "Honestly ..." always makes me think the rest of what this person has to say is dishonest. Your BIO on HN is: > I HAVEN'T SHOWERED AT ALL! THAT'S WHY I REEK! WORKING IN FINTECH! AIN'T SHAVED IN WEEKS! POUR CRUMBS FROM MY KEYBOARD! THAT'S WHAT I EAT! WROTE A CURRENCY LIBRARY! 3RD TIME THIS WEEK! LURKING HN! I PREFER /b/! IN MOM'S BASEMENT! I'M THIRTY THREE! IT'S 3'O'CLOCK AM! THAT'S WHEN…
So a sentence starting with "frankly" means they aren't a frankfurter?
Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I’m a developer too, but the developer experience doesn’t matter to users. As a user of the app, it’s fast enough, cleanly designed, seems to be reasonably private and secure, and I haven’t hit any website with it where I’ve had to download chrome to view it or something.
Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
Camera apps. Everything else I agree with, but the Android camera APIs do not allow developers to build good device independent camera apps the way they are available on iOS.
To be fair to Android, iOS isn't offering "good device independent camera apps" either, you only have ~one choice of device with iOS.
Probably the use of "device independent" had other meaning than the usual.
Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android
#316Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Social media apps? The iOS variants of those apps are afaik in no way better. What else is there, where is the advantage? This is incorrect. The IOS versions of social media apps extract way less data from the device than on android, and is thus more privacy friendly. Sure the best way would be for people not to use them, but if you "have" to, then it's better to use those on IOS.
I agree with the thrust of the GP comment but: > The IOS versions of social media apps extract way less data from the device than on android, and is thus more privacy friendly. I seriously doubt this. I agree that this is the perception but anyone working in the mobile space on both platforms for the past ~2 years will know Google is a lot more hard nosed in reviewing apps for privacy concerns than Apple these days (…
It would be nice if the app stores offered different levels of requirements. Let the market decide how much it cares about privacy (and security, and ...), reduce the friction for developers who want to do a particular thing, and give end users more confidence in the entire system.
Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 cou…
You say that they are ideologically driven when they say browsers are better on Android, and then go on to defend that having LESS features is not necessarily bad. Honestly, you are the one sounding ideologically driven. Having more options is good, specially if there are better options out there (which is the case). Firefox on Android is a better browser than Chrome or whatever, and having the option to use it IS better than not having. You have the right to say that Safari is great, but you cannot say that Gecko on iOS would be worse because, well, you don't have that option.
Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chinese phones sold in China ship without Google services. Chinese phones sold outside of China include them.
That's false. The ones you can get here in Slovenia don't have them. I've personally helped quite a few friends sideload them. I also remember how shocked people were to find out there's no YouTube or Play Store after buying a Huawei or Xiaomi phone when that first came into effect.
Probably because they are bootleg imports in a very small country.
Chinese telephones legally imported usually have them in most relevant big markets like Indonesia, India, Brazil, etc.
Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android
#319I'm with Google on this one. Idiots and old people (the public) use these devices daily. These are the very same people that send money to Nigerian royalty and expect to hear back about a great reward. This is mostly a CYA move with hard data behind it. If they completely removed side load, that would be a different story.
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Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android
#320I'm with Google on this one. Idiots and old people (the public) use these devices daily. These are the very same people that send money to Nigerian royalty and expect to hear back about a great reward. This is mostly a CYA move with hard data behind it. If they completely removed side load, that would be a different story.
This bit of article is what I'm hopeful will happen:
> That explanation broadly matches what we’re seeing in recent versions of Google Play, where new warning messages emphasize developer verification, internet requirements, and potential risks, while still allowing users to proceed.