How? Android always allowed for side loading applications, even entire shops.
You can’t really open a android store unless you make phone and ship with your own store. Like Samsung one, it’s listed in the play store contract, almost all forms of paying developer directly is not allowed. There are many conditions/steps and warnings if you tried to install apps off the play store, some of them waive your warranty. You also open the phones to potential scammer to have identical looking website and instruct users to install app that steal identity.
Note, I am not a heavy phone user and didn’t buy one in years. So my view is limited and I have no idea how the current market is working. So don’t take my replies as “he knows better”, but more like “what he thinks”.
Fdroid can’t be installed by any Android? Its a shop that is installed once like Android store and then it manages and updates all apps from that store. Google is in a similar position like Steam, where the monopoly is only about market share. But the platform is still open.
You also open the phones to potential scammer to have identical looking website and instruct users to install app that steal identity.
Yes, but that is not Googles fault or task. Every shop has to make sure its secure and is outside of Googles responsibility. So this point is completely irrelevant for the discussions about being a monopoly. It’s like saying Steam is responsible for virus and identity theft because someone installed an application on another launcher, just because Steam is seen as a monopoly (I don’t agree Steam being a monopoly, just tried to explain what I mean with context to Android).
If you are a software company, like valve, but to publish phone app. They have to go through Google store since that’s how you get that “verified” thing and you don’t have to enable developer mode. And for user that’s a peace of mind.
Is there a phishing website on PC, yeah, and how do you know? Usually it’s going through search engine or your bookmark and then check the HTTPS icons on your browser. There are also signed cert if you download and the windows exe launcher will check that with 3rd party cert. These alternative methods are not readily available on a phone, and that’s intentionally implemented so software developer will funnel back to the play store.
Probably because 3rd party app stores can’t install apps like the play store can. you need a rooted phone or flash them as a system app to get the same functionality as Play Store. which isn’t something your average Joe will do.
On a normal unmodified phone you have to manually confirm each app you want to install. so no auto-updates in the background etc.
On a normal unmodified phone you have to manually confirm each app you want to install. so no auto-updates in the background etc.
Background app updates are possible since Android 12, Fdroid just took two years to implement the new API (and you have to do a fresh install of the apps - apps already installed using the old API still require confirmation on each update). There is still friction on the initial install though.
On Android 14 and this is not my experience at all, I still have to confirm every single update on my phone, they download in the background alright but then I need to go one by one and confirm it.
And computers have always allowed for you to write your own software. If you don’t know how to do that, though, it may as well not be an option.
This is is making those alternative stores accessible to the average user:
Google will have to distribute rival third-party app stores within Google Play
Technology chauvinism is unbecoming, and unhelpful, both to others, and to your own understanding of the world around you.
You don’t have to know how to write your own software to install another App Store on Android.
Amazon has their own competing app store, with boomer-friendly instructions for installing it:
And Amazon’s phones and tablets use their own “FireOS” remix of Android without Google Play Store available.
I prefer the OS being open to third-party installers over any legal mandate that app stores not being allowed to curate their own store’s offerings. Closing off Google’s app store to competing app stores only makes sense if other app stores have no reasonable access to customers, which is clearly not the case.
Complete bullshit that they’re throwing this ruling at Android when iOS doesn’t even let you download and install a third-party app without either jailbreaking, or hooking up your iPhone in developer mode to a computer running xcode. Apple treats Cydia like it’s malware. Google perfectly tolerates Amazon and F-Droid running their own operations.
