Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

711–720 of 1001 posts

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

#711

Post by kryptiskt »

wswin wrote: post #387
tavavex wrote: post #271

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…

what's your solution to combat scammers?

As if Google Play itself isn't a cesspool full of scammers, or Google ads, or Youtube. As long as Google get their cut they don't give a shit about scams. For a reality check, turn off your adblockers and you'll see how much Google profits from scams. Any solution to scamming can't involve Google, since they long have been a willing tool for scammers.

Pretending that this is about anything but Google's greed is giving them far too much credit.

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

#713

Post by thatllbe99dot99 »

TheDong wrote: post #621
bityard wrote: post #268

Welp, I guess my current Android phone will be my last one. At least half of the apps I use on a daily basis come from f-droid. This enforced 24-hour wait is simply not acceptable. Android has always been a far inferior overall user experience compared to iPhone. Android's _only_ saving grace was that I could put my own third-party open-source apps on it. There is nothing left keeping me on Android now. I'll probably…

Switching to an iPhone will put you in an even worse walled garden that respects you even less. Even simple things like setting your default navigation app in iOS are gated behind moving to the EU.

True, but the point is, once you've sucked it up and given up, you may as well get other benefits back in exchange for turning tail. And the iPhone is unfortunately THE primary platform most applications develop for.

Personally, I am willing to just ditch the Android, get an iPhone as a "contact- and banking-only" device, and drag with me some sort of small computer everywhere. I've already dragged a linux retroconsole to a large number of places and have watched videos and listened to music and even edited code through it. May as well do the obvious and call it quits on phones-for-non-phone purposes entirely if phones will be so dedicated to being shitboxes.

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

#714

Post by mrsssnake »

viktorcode wrote: post #259

Judging by the comments sideloading plays a major part in everyone's life. What apps do you sideload guys? Why those apps are not in a store?

Even if all my apps were from Google Play, it's not up to Google to remotely decide what code I can and cannot run on my device. Especially important when talking about whole population.

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

#715

Post by iqandjoke »

lelandfe wrote: post #497
tavavex wrote: post #271

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.…

If you use iPhone, you can use iOS Mail app (and with iCloud mail) if you really care.

Apple dark UX pattern is that there always has badges on Settings app if you do not subscribe to iCloud even if you have manual backup. You cannot dismiss it.

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

#717

Post by apublicfrog »

skissane wrote: post #295
plst wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by impossible in this case? Can't you just have the coin-operated parking meters back? Where I live, in EU, parking meters even take cards. EDIT: I guess "just" is doing some heavy-lifting, so I won't argue this further, but "impossible" isn't the word I would use either. The city could revert this decision, definitely if enough people wanted them to (that's... I know, the hardest part). I just agree…

Place where I park my car for work (Gosford, Australia) just got rid of cash payment, they now take card payment only (apparently there is also going to be an app, but they haven’t launched it yet). I think the number one reason is they are upgrading to a new system, and the parking technology vendor doesn’t provide cash payments as a standard option-probably they could implement a custom integration to enable it if…

Don't pay and when you get a fine take them to court and state you don't have a bank card. There's jo wat a council can legally require you to enter into an agreement with a bank to use council run facilities, it's likely nobody's challenged them on it though.

Every council I've lived in has still taken cash for every type of council fee, despite their "official" statement being they don't.

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

#718

Post by [deleted] »

anonym29 wrote: post #460
dataflow wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the parent or agreeing/disagreeing with them, but to your question: if you get creative, there are a lot of things you could do, some more unorthodox than others. Tongue-in-cheek example, just to get the point across: instead of calling it Developer Mode, call it "Scam mode (dangerous)". Require pressing a button that says "Someone might be scamming me right now." Then require the user to type (not paste) in a lo…

The people falling for social engineering now won't be protected by this either. You could gate the functionality behind verification of an anti-scam awareness and education training and certification course, scammers would coach people through the entire course and the verification step, and people would still be victimized.

[deleted]

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

#719

Post by ekianjo »

gkoberger wrote: post #221
grishka wrote: post #87

At this point I'm convinced that there's something deeply wrong with how our society treats technology. Ruining Android for everyone to try to maybe help some rather technologically-hopeless groups of people is the wrong solution. It's unsustainable in the long run. Also, the last thing this world needs right now is even more centralization of power. Especially around yet another US company. People who are unwilling…

I “get” technology so I understand how you got here. But this is the wrong take. I expect to go to a restaurant and not die from the food… and I want nothing to do with the inner workings of the kitchen. I just want to know any restaurant I go into will be safe. Society has made restaurants safe, either because of government pressure or it’s good for business. How is that not a fair ask for technology, too? We all ha…

Bad analogies are bad analogies
Post reply on HN