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Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

gultsch.social

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Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#51

Post by yu_ni »

alwayslikethis wrote: post #39

Luckily, it's not like iOS and you can still download an APK or use F-Droid. My impression is that most people who are using these rather obscure communication methods would be able to find the app somewhere else.

The developer relies on the income from Goolge Play Store to keep working on it though:

"I understand that most of my audience here on Mastodon is more ideology aligned with F-Droid but the app sales on Google Play store have contributed significantly to me working (almost) full time on #Conversations_im.

Without the revenue from Google Play I can’t afford this." -- https://gultsch.social/@daniel/111929678072451151

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#53

Post by londons_explore »

eurekin wrote: post #37
londons_explore wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iphone doesn't solve it... XMPP apps on iphone just use a server to be your agent and send push notifications instead.

It solved "delayed notifications" for me, for certain: I still have original Samsung next to iPhone and it's clear as day: - iPhone rings, Samsung nothing - I wait few minutes just to be sure and pick up Samsung - immediately after picking it up the notification shows up, with the exact timestamp of the moment I picked it up That's why I called it a tangent to XMPP

I think this is because iphone has never allowed background apps to hold open persistent connections, yet android does but with device and power-state specific limitations.

So the iphone version of any xmpp app has to use apples notification service, but the android version of the same app might try to use a direct connection (saving the app developer a lot of server costs), even though on many models of phone it only works when the device is charging for example.

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#54

Post by causi »

Dibby053 wrote: post #11

I use an open source SPAM call blocker (Yet another call blocker), which works fairly OK by querying a local spam phone number database. Recently Google Play decided to display a permanent notification prompting me to uninstall that "dangerous" app because it could "damage" my device. It's impossible to disable this notification. This app hasn't been updated in years. It has no ads. The only network request it makes…

This kind of bullshit is why I'm done buying devices I can't root.

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#55

Post by knightoffaith »

yu_ni wrote: post #51
alwayslikethis wrote: post #39

Luckily, it's not like iOS and you can still download an APK or use F-Droid. My impression is that most people who are using these rather obscure communication methods would be able to find the app somewhere else.

The developer relies on the income from Goolge Play Store to keep working on it though: "I understand that most of my audience here on Mastodon is more ideology aligned with F-Droid but the app sales on Google Play store have contributed significantly to me working (almost) full time on #Conversations_im. Without the revenue from Google Play I can’t afford this." -- https://gultsch.social/@daniel/111929678072451151

Pretty surprising that you can make money off of a free software app like this, I always thought almost nobody would actually pay for it on Google Play store.

I hope he can work it out with Google. Conversations is the best Android XMPP client I know of.

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#56

Post by PurpleRamen »

Another datapoint for the enshitification of Android.

Recently, I have encountered problems with Tasker, because Google has removed another set of abilities from Android for the sake of "security". Which for means there is less and less reason to use Android, which kinda sucks..

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#57

Post by alwayslikethis »

knightoffaith wrote: post #55
yu_ni wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The developer relies on the income from Goolge Play Store to keep working on it though: "I understand that most of my audience here on Mastodon is more ideology aligned with F-Droid but the app sales on Google Play store have contributed significantly to me working (almost) full time on #Conversations_im. Without the revenue from Google Play I can’t afford this." -- https://gultsch.social/@daniel/111929678072451151

Pretty surprising that you can make money off of a free software app like this, I always thought almost nobody would actually pay for it on Google Play store. I hope he can work it out with Google. Conversations is the best Android XMPP client I know of.

I'm using a fork but it is the best XMPP client out there. Even the ones on Linux are riddled with bugs and usability issues.

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#58

Post by troupo »

carstenhag wrote: post #27
MattJ100 wrote: post #5

This has been happening to a bunch of XMPP apps recently, and as a maintainer of another one (which closely based on Conversations) I'm fearing the worst next time I submit an update. The worst part is the lack of communication from Google about what they think the problem is. There are plenty of apps that do actually upload contact lists to servers (hi WhatsApp, etc.), and they are still listed on the store. Many XM…

Especially tiktok is still live, and there it's super obvious they upload the contact list. First: they ask you. More importantly though: you don't even need to search for someone or someone's phone. You open the app and get 3 people suggested you never even knew had a tiktok account. Really really creepy when you just exchanged numbers with someone and you can see all their 50 tiktoks. Happened to me with a girl I m…

> You open the app and get 3 people suggested you never even knew had a tiktok account.

You send links to friends, and they immediately pop up as contact suggestions, too. TikTok is really keen on tracking those relationships down

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#59

Post by PurpleRamen »

feitingen wrote: post #35
bertman wrote: post #2

Developer: "Google has just removed #Conversations_im from the Play Store because they think we are uploading the user’s contact list. We don’t." and "To be clear: They didn’t just reject an update. They outright removed the app entirely. Otherwise my plan B would have been to remove the contacts permission which is used to display the name and profile picture locally if the XMPP address matches an entry in the users…

That's a bit funny since i get notifications on my phone from google assistant (which I've disabled) about birthdays of my contacts, and I've explicitly disabled contacts access for all google apps on my phone. Feels like a slap in the face every time.

My guess, the contacts are synced to the cloud, and the message came from Gmail or the Google Contact-Webservice and Assistant is just the icon in the middle.

Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store

#60

Post by [deleted] »

sdflhasjd wrote: post #50
MattJ100 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conversations has supported Google push notifications since 2016, long before Android started getting more aggressive about battery optimizations. It's been a standard feature of XMPP mobile apps for as long as it's been necessary.

These are surely not purely client-side XMPP... clients, though? In order for you to receive push notifications, some server somewhere is connecting as you in order to relay the messages through GCM.

[deleted]
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