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

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

#581

Post by shmerl »

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…

These "better" claims are simply not true. But it's surely a marketing Koolaid they sell.

That said, Android options are dwindling which is not a good thing. Remember LG? They are gone.

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

#582

Post by nvr219 »

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

Look up Vinegar, Baking Soda, and (by a separate developer) Wipr.

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

#583

Post by lokar »

ronsor wrote: post #570
lokar wrote: post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not a theoretical issue. It’s a major problem is several countries, the governments are getting involved.

Yes, but governments are getting involved because governments always like increasing control and reducing freedom; the "major problem" is merely a pretext.

People are loosing their life savings

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

#584

Post by bri3d »

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…

> Surely the marginal revenue from the inconsequential number of sideloading users isn't attractive enough to justify that kind of strategic blunder.

Or you could analyze this at the actual face value: the damage to Google’s brand caused by malware campaigns, especially faux-banking apps robbing people in some regions, is greater than the damage from making sideloading harder for some edge case users.

Not everything is a giant conspiracy; this move has always looked pretty clear cut to me from Google’s standpoint and I’ve never really seen any evidence to the contrary.

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

#585

Post by nvr219 »

Klonoar wrote: post #577
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…

It’s not “strictly worse” for browsers unless you care about esoteric web spec features that few sites actually need today. Safari works fine. 99% of users legitimately do not give a fuck.

Why are you booing them? They're right.

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

#586

Post by bigstrat2003 »

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.

What? The person you're replying to isn't typing -2. He said explicitly what he is typing, and the result is unambiguously incorrect.

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

#587

Post by ndriscoll »

mystifyingpoi wrote: post #179
Grazester wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So entitled. How do you expect Google to pay it's content creators that you watch if they didn't have ads?

I will be downvoted, but I'm not fooling myself. I don't care. As long as uBlock and yt-dlp still work, I'll use them. If Google breaks them, I'll resort to some automated screengrabbing + maybe some AI automation to click "skip" in a virtual machine or something. People will use all sorts of excuses, like the ads are about gambling, or contain viruses, or are detrimental to mental health, or whatever. No, don't use…

I'm not sure how those are "excuses". They are reasons to not want ads. Ads are fundamentally malicious, so you should remove them from your life. I don't view attempting to "influence" me as a valid way to make a living, and am unconcerned with those who want to do it in the same way that I'm unconcerned about what would happen if someone tried to scam people with early wins in a shell game, but people just took the early win and walked instead of placing a big bet. That's just comeuppance.

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

#589

Post by bigstrat2003 »

miki123211 wrote: post #470
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…

This isn't about pure revenue, it's about scams. Android has a reputation for being unsafe precisely because of sideloading (as well as low Google Play fees, looser app review, accessibility services and remote access). This policy is bad for us HNers, but objectively good for the 95+% of people who will never sideload a legitimate Android app, but are extremely likely to get caught by scammers. The heavy US skew of…

There isn't a snowball's chance in hell that Google is doing this to protect users from scams. It is purely driven by their desire to control the platform and eliminate things like ad-blocking youtube apps. You're far too credulous of evil corporations' stated motives.

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

#590

Post by throw3e98 »

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

I use Wipr 2. You throw $5 at the dev and you never have ads on any iOS device again.
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