Live data from Hacker News

Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

9to5google.com

311–320 of 1001 posts

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#311

I've grown increasingly hateful towards both my Android and iOS devices over the last decade. The platforms themselves are increasingly user-hostile, and their appstores are crammed full of shitty, privacy-invading, telemetry-hoovering, dopamine-triggering, ad-filled, lipstick-covered apps that are often garbage compared to the pioneering days of mobile. I miss the days of my old Palm Pilot. Is anyone working on fixi…

I think before we can fix all that we need to revert the renting of software via subscriptions and go back to one-time-payment. But people are too greedy for that.

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#312

Well time to make sure mobile Linux is accessible so the blind users aren't the only ones left when all the world switches to Linux /s

aren't there braille terminals that work with linux? I don't know how you would make a rigorous blind UX other than working with a text interface first.

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#314
post #239

Makes sense why they had to get rid of the "don't be evil" motto. They've been on a roll. I've seen a lot of similar sentiment on this thread, but the reason I use Android is because it gives me more control than iOS by allowing full-on painless sideloading, and custom distributions like GrapheneOS. They're doing everything they can to turn themselves into a worse Apple. All of the downsides of Apple, but none of the…

> There's no reason a competitive Linux-based smartphone can't exist There is; it's the "phone" part of "smartphone". Being a phone makes the device subject to a lot more requirements (for an obvious example, emergency dialing must always be available and work, and at the same time the phone must never accidentally dial the emergency number). In my country, only cell phones certified by the government telecommunicati…

> There is; it's the "phone" part of "smartphone". Being a phone makes the device subject to a lot more requirements (for an obvious example, emergency dialing must always be available and work, and at the same time the phone must never accidentally dial the emergency number).

Funnily, Google is one the few phone manufacturers who can’t make emergency calls to work. (e.g. search Pixel problems)

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#316
The desire for people to keep using their currently working devices just got much bigger, and yet another good reason to root.

The infamous Franklin quote always comes to mind when I see things like this happening. Choose freedom over security while you still can, or you'll soon not even have the freedom to choose.

It's also worth reading Stallman's "Right to Read" again, to see how scarily prescient he was.

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#317

I predict Windows will end up going this route before Google backtracks on it. This is the future; partially fuelled by malware, partially fuelled by the desire for platform control, and partially fuelled by government regulation.

This is the year of Linux on the Desktop!

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#318

> Google wants to combat “convincing fake apps” Google can't even stop the scam ai companion apps on the play store that all use the same same backend full of characters... Google also can't stop the huge wave of scam Bitcoin ads impersonating Canadian media outlets, with ai generated pictures and videos of politicians. Get real Google.

Don't get me started. Every single app I search for on the play store gets a first sponsored result that is a completely different app. It is so utterly broken by design.

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#319

Android's ability to run binaries outside of the Google Play Store is a key differentiator of their product vs. Apple's. Or at least it used to be.

It's ironically also why they were ruled a monopoly and Apple wasn't. Yeah, try and wrap your head around that.

Re: Google will allow only apps from verified developers to be installed on Android

#320
post #60

This is the worst thing to happen to technology in recent times since there is only two major phone OS's. It isn't possible to ban encryption, so the governments have to chip away at security and privacy using these techniques. From: https://developer.android.com/developer-verification "You may also need to upload official government ID." This won't end well for Google or the governments involved when the people get…

> This won't end well for Google or the governments involved when the people get so angry that they are forced to roll this back.

This makes me quite angry, but I guarantee more than 90% of Android users will not be bothered too much about this. Many of them will actually like it, and most of those who don't will just shrug and go on with their day.

Post reply on HN