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Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

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Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#651

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This "sideloading" thing is mostly to enforce US sanctions against countries like China, Russia and Iran. So yes, hundreds of millions of people care about this.

I don't think it follows that the entire population of each of those countries automatically cares about this just because it's, ostensibly, being done to enforce sanctions against them.

I never said anything about "entire".

Normies in sanctioned countries install banking apps by "sideloading" APK's downloaded from an official site. They all know exactly what "sideloading" is and why Google is banning it.

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#652
post #607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate this pop-up so much. I don’t even have Chrome installed on my phone. How about open up on the only browser I have installed… This kind of thing should be illegal. The default browser is the default for a reason, to avoid this kind of stuff. I think I’ve reported this as a bug to Google a couple times, in a couple different apps… as they do it in their other apps too. The only thing that bothers me more are the…

It's OK. This is the dying, last gasp effort that a company makes when it has no way to innovate, no way to add any real value, no capacity to drive change internally, and has become completely non-user focused. In short, it's what companies like IBM and Broadcom are now. Shallow husks of their former self, mere holding companies for patents, with a complete lack of care and concern about any end-user retention. Goog…

>Look at Microsoft of old, the god of arrogance. Once the most dominant, powerful tech company in the world. They were king. Browser king. OS king. Everything king. Now they are barely noticed by large swaths of the market.

Have they ever been more valuable than now?

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#653

24H forced wait time?!? WTF When I side-load open-source apps for other people, I want to do it right in the moment, not activate the feature, and the next time I see them (like half a year later), install the app. When Google announced there would be an alternative installation method, I did not expect such a mess...

So it seems it will work as they intended. "I did not expect such a mess", I certainly did. Another arm of the push to remove anonymity online.

Don't forget offline. We now have an epidemic of license plate and face reading cameras rolling out all over the place.

Orwell couldn't even dream of the invasive monitoring that exists right now.

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#654
post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(some) people are starting to understand why cash is so important. It's the neutrality that it provides. The fact that it can't be programmatically limited or censored and you can't be excluded from the economy. Cash is inclusive. Obviously cash becomes much harder to "use" online and in apps...

Activists and human rights lawyers are constantly getting their bank accounts closed or denied, even UN human rights council members, members of the ICC, journalists, pro-palestine activists or people in the BDS movement, it happens ALL the time now in europe, people have no idea how bad that has become, nobody in mass media is ever reporting on it.

I'm not surprised - the Zionist lobby has basically criminalized all opposition to it. Trump's "anti-DEI" geniuses ensured that any censure of Israel and its crimes would lead to the total destruction of one's life in the US (Gleen Greenwald talks about this on Tucker).

Given how this is going, I'd not be surprised if anti-semitism comes roaring back by the end of the decade.

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#655

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope the EU cracks down on them like they did with Apple.

Merely regulating them isn't enough. The world needs to start enforcing antitrust laws. If we don't break up all these big tech companies, our future will be a technofeudalist cyberpunk dystopia.

We haven't broken up all these big tech companies, and we are living in a technofeudalist cyberpunk dystopia.

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#656

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An actual example of this lives in the Gmail iOS app. Click a link in an email and every x days, a sheet appears: https://imgur.com/a/nlGS4Yk 1. Chrome 2. Google 3. Default browser app (w/unfamiliar generic logo) They removed the option for Safari some time in the last two years; here's how it looked in 2024: https://imgur.com/1iBVFfc And the cherry on top of dark UX patterns: an unchecked toggle rests at the bottom.…

An annoying extension of this is opening a Google maps link on mobile. It always prompts to open Google Maps (the app) no matter what. If you click no, its bugs the fuck out and opens an App Store link. If you click yes, even if you have Google Maps installed, it bugs the fuck out and opens an app store link. In neither case will it properly show the location on a first attempt. It's been like this for years. I'd ask…

I think this is an Apple bug.

I’ve seen it with non-Google apps too. I’m not sure what causes it, but I believe sometimes you can long tap the link and select the correct option.

I believe the behavior where you say no and it still tries to open the app is because the default behavior on Google Maps links is to open Google Maps.

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#657

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GrapheneOS phones are still an option, it’s unaffected by these rules.

If they manage to expand their lineup a bit, that'll be my next phone. Or, if a company makes a phone with GrapheneOS preinstalled, I'm giving them my money. Fuck Google for doing this, and Play Integrity making me unable to use banks is even worse.

> if a company makes a phone with GrapheneOS preinstalled, I'm giving them my money.

FWIW you can buy a Pixel (new or 2nd hand) and install GrapheneOS via the Web https://grapheneos.org/install/web with nothing (genuinely nothing) installed on your computer and get it working in ~15min (depending on your connection to download the ROM) out of which maybe ~2min will be your interacting with the setup process.

I initially bought an /e/OS precisely with your requirement, namely I "just" want a phone that works when I receive it, no tinkering, but having installed GrapheneOS myself few days (or weeks?) ago I can tell you, it's really straightforward.

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#658

The part in the flow where you select between allowing app installs for 7 days or forever is a glimpse into the future. That toggle shows the thought process that's going on at Google. I can bet that a few versions down the line, the "Not recommended" option of allowing installs indefinitely will become so not recommended that they'll remove it outright. Then shrink the 7 day window to 3 days or less. Or only give us…

An actual example of this lives in the Gmail iOS app. Click a link in an email and every x days, a sheet appears: https://imgur.com/a/nlGS4Yk 1. Chrome 2. Google 3. Default browser app (w/unfamiliar generic logo) They removed the option for Safari some time in the last two years; here's how it looked in 2024: https://imgur.com/1iBVFfc And the cherry on top of dark UX patterns: an unchecked toggle rests at the bottom.…

the YouTube app does the same. Infuriating. I don't have Chrome installed and it doesn't list the only third party browser I _do_ have installed: Orion

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#659
post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have terrible support for banking apps and any app that needs play integrity

Does/do your bank/s absolutely always require you to use an app? Is there a desktop/website that you can use? Do they have a brick and mortar location?

Typically the website requires you to use the mobile app as 2FA. Typically also there are less and less brick and mortar locations.

Re: Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps

#660
post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have terrible support for banking apps and any app that needs play integrity

Then don't use those apps. I know it's easier said than done sometimes, but freedom is more important than convenience.

Yeah, just like, move to a country where banks still offer web banking, bro. Move banks. Got a locked down mortgage on good rates? Tough luck man.

Etc

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