Google Play is cancer that belongs in a sandbox or better yet running only in a secondary user profile.
Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store
61–70 of 184 posts
Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store
#62Conversations is on F-Droid so there is no reason to get it from the Play store. This goes for all free software apps, get them from F-Droid or similar free software repos and free yourself from the manipulations by the likes of Google/Apple/Microsoft/Amazon/etc. Yes, I understand this limits the reach to those who know about F-Droid (et al) but given the way XMPP has been pushed out by the aforementioned corporate e…
I have my whole family on XMPP, most of them do not know about F-Droid.
Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store
#63Luckily, 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.
F-Droid is a mess too. Apart from the unclear organizational status at this point and the associated drama, they also are super keen on plastering "anti-features" on apps with very vague criteria and no grace period. Organic Maps was for example, first accused of ads whereas it just had clearly communicated referral links to hotels on Kayak, then somebody came up with an idea it promotes non-free network services (i.e. the goddamn map download CDN in an otherwise offline app)
Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store
#64Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store
#65Earlier 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 the F-Droid version, but I bought it on Play.
Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store
#66I 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…
Check out the Aurora store, it's a drop in replacement for the play store withot the Google nonsense. I started using it after Google refused to let me install watch faces, because the apps hadn't been updated for foldable phones.
I would even go so far (as I recently said on Mastodon) that nowadays using Aurora over the Google Play Store is safer since it doesn't display ads for other apps just above the search results for the app one is looking for. If one isn't paying attention or running on autopilot (it happens) one might click on the ad and install some malware.
Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store
#67Developer: "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…
Never fear, I'm sure someone from Google support will be only too happy to help.
> Never fear, I'm sure someone from Google support will be only too happy to help.
/s *
*) For that one person that thinks this is not a sarcasm.
Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store
#68Conversations is on F-Droid so there is no reason to get it from the Play store. This goes for all free software apps, get them from F-Droid or similar free software repos and free yourself from the manipulations by the likes of Google/Apple/Microsoft/Amazon/etc. Yes, I understand this limits the reach to those who know about F-Droid (et al) but given the way XMPP has been pushed out by the aforementioned corporate e…
I have my whole family on XMPP, most of them do not know about F-Droid.
Tell them about F-Droid then. Tell them they can find a bunch of apps which are less likely to sell their soul to the highest bidder. I did tell mine, all of them installed F-Droid - it is just another app after all - and most use a number of apps from there, things like Nextcloud and DavX and, yes, Conversations.
Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store
#69Luckily, 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.
F-Droid is a mess too. Apart from the unclear organizational status at this point and the associated drama, they also are super keen on plastering "anti-features" on apps with very vague criteria and no grace period. Organic Maps was for example, first accused of ads whereas it just had clearly communicated referral links to hotels on Kayak, then somebody came up with an idea it promotes non-free network services (i.…
Anti-feature warnings on F-Droid do not affect your ability to install an app in any way, they are just there to inform users. Also the assessment of Organic Maps seems correct to me?
Re: Google has removed Conversations_im from the Play Store
#70Developer: "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…
Talk with Google, usually this stuff can be resolved. Their bots flag stuff because of reasons. Yes, sometimes it's BS, but often there's something that you have missed to clarify.
If only there was a real person at Google to talk to.
The only way to sometimes get stuff like this resolved is to make the front page of HN, Twitter, etc.