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

Post by einsteinx2 » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 7:24 PM UTC

8note wrote: post #496

hoistbypetard wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about categories overall, but I'm attached to my iPad and won't switch to Android in part because Affinity is not available there, nor is there any near equivalent as far as I can tell. I still think Overcast is nicer to use than Antenna Pod. Microsoft Office apps work much better on iDevices, in my experience. (I know they exist for Android, but I've never had much luck editing there, where it actually…

how do you live without ublock on your browser though? firefox with adblock is the high quality youtube app

Post by gunalx » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 7:26 PM UTC

password1 wrote: post #431

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…

There's a saying in mobile development that in most companies the Android version of the app is a second class citizen. It usually brings substantially less money and so less money are invested in it. As a result the Android team is often understaffed and the app is almost always behind in feature development, less polished and with overall worse UX and more bugs compared to the iOS app. Also iOS still has a communit…

Post by ndriscoll » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 7:28 PM UTC

toxik wrote: post #285

ben_w wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> iOS apps tend to be more stable, better polished It's been a while since I was last using Android, but first-party Apple apps no longer meet my standards for "polished". e.g. type this sequence into the calculator: [2] [-] [4] [=] [x²] [=] The answer should not be negative, but the app says "-4". The desktop Contacts app has been putting invisible LTR and RTL codes around phone numbers for years now, breaking web f…

-4 makes sense if you understand that the input -2 is a unary minus operation. So typing -2 then hitting square only squares 2, not (-2). This is the same in eg Python so I'm not sure it's very controversial. I agree it's unexpected, though.

    >>> 2-4
    -2
    >>> _**2
    4

Post by armadyl » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 7:36 PM UTC

PlatoIsADisease wrote: post #292

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…

Post by EngineerUSA » Sun, Jan 25, 2026, 7:37 PM UTC