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‘That is not acceptable’: Judge orders Google to make rival app store installs easier (www.theverge.com)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/android@lemmy.world
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[–] 13 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

Do all apps in Epic store and Amazon App Store get an exception from this new rule or something?

I just installed the one currently available app store (which frankly and beside the point, seems like garbage) and installing an app from it goes through the same process as, say, downloading an app from GitHub via the browser and being prompted to give permission to the browser to install APKs.

I'm guessing it's going to run into the sideloading issue in 140 days, and at that time I'm (just) guessing they'll have cause to bring it to a judge to discuss it.

I'd like to say that Google would see the writing on the wall and just drop the sideloading nonsense, but the process they implemented by order of the court seems like malicious compliance; it takes several extra steps to install an app store from Google play than any other app. That suggests to me they're not going to do anything in good faith and wait for the court to force them.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago (1 child)

    The one "currently available" app store where? There are many of them.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 days ago (1 child)

    The one you can install via Google's Play Store.

    It's literally the topic of the entire thread.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago (1 child)

    The cases decision was about rival app stores in general. The bulk of those aren't on Google's marketplace.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 days ago (1 child)

    Please read the article.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago (1 child)

    Does everyone here have a paid subscription to The Verge? I'm on lemmy. There's never or rarely, a post here that isn't behind a paywall. Is there some trick I am missing out on?

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago*

    Is there some trick I am missing out on?

    If the site shows you the whole article and then throws up some annoying popup that prevents you from reading it, it's almost certainly using JavaScript to do that. (This is most of them.)

    In these instances, disable JavaScript for that site. Google will help you figure out how to do that for your specific browser. Once JS is disabled, reload the page, if you haven't already.

    Slightly preachy sidebar: it's safer to browse the internet with javascript off and enable it only as needed. There are probably browser extensions for whatever browser you use to make toggling javascript for a specific site less annoying than digging into the site settings.

    Edit: some browsers have a built in "reading mode" that can circumvent these paywalls. Not always, though.

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  • [–] 0 points 6 days ago (2 children)

    There is an advantage to app stores, they can update apps they installed without user interaction.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 days ago

    I'd disagree that auto updates are really an advantage, however my point was that the upcoming changes to sideloading apps (which includes a 24 hour wait to enable sideloading) will probably apply to apps installed via third party app stores. I'm basing this on the fact that third party app stores seem to leverage the same mechanism as sideloading apps from other sources, like via the browser.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago (1 child)

    Auto updates are not always good. They often add enshitification new "features".

    One example I experienced. I stopped Duolingo from updating for months. Because the update removed the ability to get unlimited energy by joining a classroom. Now that its updated it sucks because I have the stupid energy system and can't just do lessons all I want, I am basically stuck at 2 per day.

    I can of course, subscribe, to get rid of this limit, but the subscription pricing and even ability feels incredibly obfuscated, which makes me want to now. I want to say its also a bit pricey.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago

    I didn't say auto updates are always good and they should be enforced, it's just that if you want them you can get them by installing from an app store but not by installing from a browser

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