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

The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week

gultsch.social

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 357 posts

Re: The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week

#171

Post by everforward »

pjc50 wrote: post #64
setgree wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what should we do about apps' getting hacked, sending out malicious updates that get auto-updated and thereby infecting tens of millions or billions of phones simultaneously? I'm not saying we have the perfect system but anything that slants the system towards "easier downloads" or "less gatekeeping" brings large, obvious risks. I don't see how regulation would address them.

I wonder if people would be happy replacing the "Google approves developers" system with a "government requires your ID and address on file so you can be held liable for your apps" system. I suspect not.

The only part that would really be novel is the liability.

I would be shocked if you could publish an iOS app without Apple being able to tell the government who you are. Less because Apple cares and more because Apple requires you to pay, which is very hard to do anonymously for something like this (I’d bet the options they offer are effectively “credit card only”).

Re: The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week

#172

Post by gadders »

Can confirm. Took about 8 days for my last app update, and about 5 or 6 for the Play Store listing update.

As someone new to the app publishing world I am surprised at how strict the requirements are, given the absolute dross you can find published.

Re: The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week

#173

Post by hbn »

abricq wrote: post #51

By the way, the same is happening for the Apple Store. Their review process is advocated as usually within 24 hours ( and heavily advertised by Apple as such, see https://developer.apple.com/distribute/app-review/ ) and it is taking now much longer. In the last month, I had to go through the review process twice, and twice I needed to contact them personally after waiting for 1 week of waiting. It did however helped,…

I'm sure submissions have absolutely skyrocketed with model advancements since the beginning of the year. I'd be curious to see the numbers.

I know Github's commit numbers have been pretty staggering YoY.

Re: The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week

#174

Post by neilv »

voakbasda wrote: post #151

I hope someone will sue the ever-loving shit out of Apple when their foot dragging prevents a critical update from going out in time to prevent a 0-day from being widely exploited.

Interesting. And all the history of Kafkaesque review interactions that various developers have had could be subpoenaed, as evidence of a pattern: that delays aren't necessarily due to excellence and good faith.

Re: The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week

#175

Post by nik282000 »

Maskawanian wrote: post #55
setgree wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what should we do about apps' getting hacked, sending out malicious updates that get auto-updated and thereby infecting tens of millions or billions of phones simultaneously? I'm not saying we have the perfect system but anything that slants the system towards "easier downloads" or "less gatekeeping" brings large, obvious risks. I don't see how regulation would address them.

How about treating people like adults for a start? How about starting public awareness campaigns about proper digital hygiene. Not everything has to be nanny state garbage.

You expect people to treat devices with respect and responsibility? The VAST majority of people use their phones to stream an infinite sequence of clickbait, ai slop, and conspiracies for 6 to 8 hours a day.

Re: The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week

#176

Post by sunaookami »

pjmlp wrote: post #59
Maskawanian wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about treating people like adults for a start? How about starting public awareness campaigns about proper digital hygiene. Not everything has to be nanny state garbage.

Many of us have routinely cleaned computers from adults that installed several Ask Jeeves and Yahoo toolbars.

And e.g. browsers cracked down on it, removed toolbar support and powerful add-on support AND enforced signing meaning everything goes through their gatekept extension store and these problems still persist (e.g. addons changing the search provider, new tab page or homepage). Locking everything down does not help.

Re: The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week

#177

Post by CharlesW »

nchmy wrote: post #73
wklm wrote: post #67

Strong argument in favor of web vs native apps. If you need bluetooth on iOS checkout the web bluetooth iOS safari extension i've been working on recently: https://beacio.com

Yes, a truly Open Web is the solution that we need. It already works everywhere with a single codebase, and is more secure and private than native apps. But Apple prevents that by forcing all browsers to use terrible WebKit on iOS. Endless more information on all of this at https://infrequently.org/series/browser-choice-must-matter/ https://open-web-advocacy.org

Note that Alex Russell is a Blink partisan, currently supporting Blink at Microsoft and formerly having done so at Google. Folks like that don't take kindly to the idea that a Blink monoculture might not be a great thing, and definitely do not share the opinion that it's critical to the open web that Apple not cede the open web to Blink.

Remember, Blink began as Google's 2013 fork of WebKit. They've embraced and extended it, but thankfully the "extinguish" step is taking longer than they thought. This makes the "open web, as long as it's my engine" people upset.

Safari's PWA support is not as complete as Chrome's today, but it's as good as Firefox's support and perfectly capable of supporting rich, standards-based apps. https://pwascore.com/

Re: The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week

#178

Post by [deleted] »

carlosjobim wrote: post #167
jprjr_ wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

let's say you have a bug that makes your app unusable. If you can't get an update our for a week - people are going to just stop using your app.

You shouldn't have shipped that bug in the first place, I would say. If the bug comes from an Android update, I assume that developers have had access to betas long before the system update is rolled out.

[deleted]

Re: The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week

#179

Post by rock_artist »

setgree wrote: post #49
Gareth321 wrote: post #18

MAYBE operating systems shouldn't have gatekeepers which can deny access to billions of customers for any and no reason at all. Apple and Google are WELL past due for regulation in this space. The fact that we cannot download and install software from the internet onto our phones JUST like we can do with our computers is a symbol of our inept and ineffective politicians. And before someone says "well akshully you can…

And what should we do about apps' getting hacked, sending out malicious updates that get auto-updated and thereby infecting tens of millions or billions of phones simultaneously? I'm not saying we have the perfect system but anything that slants the system towards "easier downloads" or "less gatekeeping" brings large, obvious risks. I don't see how regulation would address them.

We already had enough proof of vulnerabilities in the OS code and Manufacturers (eg. Samsung/Lenovo/etc privileged apps), there were enough reviewed apps that were used for fraud or access as bad actors.

My banking works in my 'unprotected' computer browser. So I'd expect giving anyone equivalent freedom. I don't mind if there's a default for gate-keepers as long as they allow competition. but I would expect to have same freedom on my mobile devices as on my laptop.

Re: The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week

#180

Post by sunaookami »

pavlov wrote: post #96
Gareth321 wrote: post #18

MAYBE operating systems shouldn't have gatekeepers which can deny access to billions of customers for any and no reason at all. Apple and Google are WELL past due for regulation in this space. The fact that we cannot download and install software from the internet onto our phones JUST like we can do with our computers is a symbol of our inept and ineffective politicians. And before someone says "well akshully you can…

> "Apple and Google are WELL past due for regulation in this space." There is major regulation in place already. EU's Digital Markets Act forces these OS gatekeepers to allow alternative app stores and external payment methods. It also prevents Apple from playing anti-competitive games with App Store rules, like banning hyperlinks within apps that could be used to allow the user to make a payment elsewhere. The curre…

The EU is not interested in liberating phone operating systems because it goes against their digital wallet push which forces everyone to use an attested, Google/Apple sanctioned device and operating system.
Post reply on HN