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103

Google Confirms Play Store App Deletion—Now Just 6 Weeks Away (www.forbes.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I mean, I know lemmy has an open source hardon and hates anything walled, but is this really such a bad thing? Google is getting rid of a bunch of shitty apps and risky apps. Nothing is stopping you from still sideloading them if you really need them.

I really fail to see the actual issue aside from "google bad"

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Did you read the article? Simple text and PDF readers are in the cross hairs. Apps that aren't "engaging" are in the cross hairs.

I expect developers of perfectly fine apps will have to manually vet those apps with Google.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I read it. Didn't think much of it. Are those apps that common? Don't use them, as my browser can read pdf and text files.

Sounds more like some fringe apps will get caught in the cross hairs. Still sounds like a good change for the average end user. For the average power user, it won't make a difference imo.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You only ecosystem where only the big players and big products are allowed to exist?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Ofcourse not, I also use fdroid and I sideload a shitton of apps. But Google is not killing off alternate stores, they're just making their store safer. My whole point is that this change is not that negative. If anything it'll have a positive effect on non tech savvy users. It'll save me time by potentially causing less issues on the devices of family members.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

What percent of users will ever sideload? If it's not commonplace, it's not relevant.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Google's not been very open source for a long time.

Android continues to remove open source from their OS over the years for proprietary binaries. They are also continuing to abstract away openness. Stock file managers can't see inside the /sdcard/Android folder anymore. Only via USB on a computer. USB on a computer won't copy some kinds of files into that part of the filesystem. ADB still allows you, for now.

If you try to go to the Android File Transfer app page, it now redirects to Quick Share.

Low level stuff continues to be taken away from the OS. Samsung Android phones in the US aren't even allowed to turn off 5G on some carriers. All Android phones are having carrier select and network mode menus neutered in the US. Apple has more flexibility there, hilariously.

Fun fact: Back when it all kicked off, iPhone had a pretty big open source component in the underlying Mach microkernel and supporting software and there was a whole slew of OSS on their platform.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I hane lost the use of so many Android app I paid for because they were delistd from the Play store. Not happy.

I now resort to creating a backup apk for my most usd ones. I also create a backup befors updating. Never know if an update will break something or even worse, remove a feature.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Sounds like so much worrying and work for barely anything. Your last issues don't even have anything to do with Google or the Play Store

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

That final part isn't really Google's fault no? But just the devs cutting functions?