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

9to5google.com

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

#391

Post by zmmmmm »

hn8726 wrote: post #42

> developers will have the same freedom to distribute their apps directly to users through sideloading or to use any app store they prefer. We believe this is how an open system should work—by preserving choice while enhancing security for everyone I guess words don't don't have meaning anymore, how can you claim to have an open system in an announcement about closing it down? It's also telling that the big supporter…

> developers will have the same freedom to distribute their apps directly to users

You have here Google making a statement it can't actually fulfill and one that it knows it can't fulfill. So Google is willfully lying here.

The minute Google has a technical capability to control what applications run on Android it's out of their hands. It is in the hands of courts, governments, dictators and authoritarians. That's just the nature of the world - Google has to obey the law and Google doesn't make the laws.

I guess it sounds hysterical, but in that sense, this is an absolutely massive loss of freedom for the entire planet as communication power that rested with individual choice is now transferred wholesale back to governments by this decision.

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

#393

Post by throw10920 »

This is really bad. I think that most people on HN will agree with that.

The problem is that most normal people (HN is not normal - mostly for the better) don't even understand what sideloading is - let alone actually care.

How can we fix this?

(aside from making people care - apathy enables so many political problems in the current age, but it's such a huge problem that this definitely isn't going to be the impetus to fix it)

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

#394

Post by pabs3 »

rkagerer wrote: post #115

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…

Start complaining to your government about every shitty thing the apps and OSes do, and tell your friends to do it too, eventually we may get some action on it.

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

#395

Post by nabogh »

throw10920 wrote: post #393

This is really bad. I think that most people on HN will agree with that. The problem is that most normal people (HN is not normal - mostly for the better) don't even understand what sideloading is - let alone actually care . How can we fix this? (aside from making people care - apathy enables so many political problems in the current age, but it's such a huge problem that this definitely isn't going to be the impetus…

We need another os in the market. A duopoly just isn't competitive enough. Too bad the cost of entry is so high.

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

#396

Post by strix_varius »

rkagerer wrote: post #115

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 tried to screenshot some app on my android the other day and got an error toast reading some bullshit like "this action has been blocked by the admin." Uh I'm the admin and this is my hardware... The sketchy app was trying to prevent screenshots.

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

#397

Post by goku12 »

rmah wrote: post #219
Kim_Bruning wrote: post #140

I never really got into "phone" progrmaming, always waiting for the shenanigans to die down. But somehow the shanigans have gotten worse and for a significant chunk of the world population, the phone is the only computation device they have at all.

Software distribution control didn't start with phones, it started with game consoles.

[flagged]

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

#398

Post by throw10920 »

nabogh wrote: post #395
throw10920 wrote: post #393

This is really bad. I think that most people on HN will agree with that. The problem is that most normal people (HN is not normal - mostly for the better) don't even understand what sideloading is - let alone actually care . How can we fix this? (aside from making people care - apathy enables so many political problems in the current age, but it's such a huge problem that this definitely isn't going to be the impetus…

We need another os in the market. A duopoly just isn't competitive enough. Too bad the cost of entry is so high.

I agree with you idealistically, but practically, creating an entirely new mobile OS with market share competitive with the existing two is an unbelievably massive challenge. It'd probably be just about as easy to get people to care about sideloading in the first place.

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

#399

Post by kelnos »

hollow-moe wrote: post #18

They saw Apple getting away with notarization under the DMA so they're doing the same. I must admit the mass demotivation strategy is working really well. Seeing this kind of news every single day, affecting you directly and not even being able to do anything

Yep. I feel powerless, and I don't know what to do. I don't think there is anything I can do, except for watch all of technology get locked down to the point that you need a monopolist's or a government's permission before you do anything with it.

It's so fundamentally depressing, and completely at odds with how I grew up viewing tech.

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

#400

Post by jovial_cavalier »

If this goes through, would it be possible to see a consumer class-action lawsuit? I imagine there is a class of people for whom the sideloading of apps is necessary and removing it renders their phone almost useless. I'd also guess that this market is much larger than Google imagines.

Personally, if I'm not allowed to run the software that I want on my phone, it almost makes more sense for me to get some old flip phone or one of those chinese blackberry knockoffs c.a. 2012. Not out of any principled stance, mind you, it's just that's the level of functionality you'd be reducing me to. Why should I pay $500 when I can find something that gives me the same features on a literal junk pile?

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