Does anyone here actually support Google’s Developer Verification?
I don’t. I’ve put a warning about it in my repo because I’m against policies like sideloading restrictions, forced ID verification.
Curious what other devs here think. Is Play Store still worth the hassle?
If I were a mobile dev I’d make GTK apps for Linux phones and use Pixiewood to create Android builds:
I think if Google (or Apple for that matter) wants to play this game, then everyone from the reviewer to the CEO should be held legally responsible when malware ends up not only verified but distributed by them. And by legally I mean also as accessory to the crime.
Is Play Store still worth the hassle?
If you’re a for-profit business yeah more or less, if not hell no just publish on f-droid or something
f-droid needs the app to be foss. maybe something like codebergXobtainium will work for closed source. There is also itch.io with the inofficial mitch client which could be worth a upload pipeline but i dont know
you can always just host your own fdroid repo, there’s nothing magical about it and it’s trivial for users to add it to their client.
Are there any relevant/common reason to keep an app closed source if its NOT for profit?
maybe preference or skill issue. so not really, no
I am not so much into programming, but what extra skill is required to add a license and make the repo public? Maybe if you have a closed source dependency and would need to replace it, then it would be a skill issue.
Is Android Studio forcing you to register?
Does anyone here actually support Google’s Developer Verification?
At best some are indifferent but I’ve never heard of anyone who actively supports this.
Is Play Store still worth the hassle i?
Never has been 🔫
Continue publishing app freely, do not verify yourself
Fuck google
I have getgoogleoff.me email domain 👍🏼
edit: from disroot
Why would you want to pleasure them?
Is there any way to build Android apps for Linux if you have the source code? I know Waydroid is a thing but that’s basically just a VM of Android. I was told Jetpack compose is supposed to be cross platform so there should be a way migrate it right?
Yes. Jetpack Compose is multiplatform. If you have the source code of an android app, you can port it to your preferred platform, but you have to adjust most of the code depending on the functionality since APIs are platform-specific unless it’s JVM only.
I paid the fee for a dev account near the beginning of Android. Haven’t had any apps published in over a decade, but from what I understand my account is grandfathered in so I don’t have to jump through as many hoops to get something published if I chose to, compared to newer accounts. Anyhow, since I have an account I suppose I’m unaffected by this decision. Still, it goes against the original spirit of Android as a free and developer-centric platform and I condemn it.
I think you still need to register/verify since it will require a valid ID and app IDs (package names).
Went to https://play.google.com/console and it all seems to be okay. The two derelict apps already have package IDs and my info is on the identity tab. I think I may have visited that page a year or two ago in response to an email from Google. Or is there something else?
we’ll see in the next months
With any luck there will be pushback somewhere that Google can’t ignore.
Does that mean this app won’t be available on app store, but can be installed from other places? I know there are on going changes regarding this topic, but I’m not fully informed. And researching will bring probably ton of Ai generated articles I’m not willing to look into. Could F-Droid still be used on a “regular” Android?
No it means you won’t be allowed to install the app on any certified devices at all. Regardless of where it’s obtained.
@[email protected] is right, it just means Google will refuse to publish it on the Play Store. It can still be installed by going through a convoluted process to enable sideloading.
What it means can be read, for example, in Detail here: https://keepandroidopen.org/en/
Holy mother of duck! This is worse than I thought. I assume custom firmware like LineageOS or e/OS don’t have these restrictions. But most people have stock Android off course.
This rules are part of and enforced by the google play framework, so I would assume that as soon as Google Play and/or Google Play Services are installed on Lineage or other custom roms that then the same limitations come in effect. This is only an assuption by me, based on how I understand it, so I may be, and I hope that I am, very wrong.
There is an alternative service called microG, an Open Source alternative to Google libraries to replace Google Play Services in example. This makes it possible to use the Play Store without Googles proprietary stuff. However I don’t know how compatible it is, but it is big part of alternative custom roms to replace Google as much as possible. I don’t use the Play Store, so cannot say first hand how good it works. More info on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroG .
Maybe this new policy and stuff could affect this alternative implementation of Google Services?
they’re going to make it more difficult too. you basically need to enable dev mode a second time, then for every application that can install ap, you need to re-approve then wait 24 hours.
Fuck that, I’ll stay unverified/nogapps. They can keep their malware.
Yes I am.
I spend a long time of my career in IT Sec.
80% of android users will freely install whatever APK from wherever.
Info stealer infected fake apps are a massive risk to a huge part of the user base.
Yes, it will get a little bit more complicated to sideload. But nobody is prevented from it.
And everybody that is against user protection (and yes, this is fucking user protection, just not for you) is invited next Christmas to de-worm the android devices of my family without wiping them.
EDIT for all those that only read the memes. Sideloading will NOT be disabled. You have to jump though extra hoops.
Yes, the way they do this is not even testable yet and we can argue over details.
I support the principal idea, as someone who had to live with the fallout of people who installed “it support apps” because someone told them to
Most scam apps are in the Google Play Store btw
maybe because it was to easy to upload to the googleplay store. Maybe there should be some kind of verification of the person uploading. How could this be accomplished?
Joking aside I don’t think side loading should be encoumbered like this, but for the official app store it makes sense.
If their IA was so great, they would use it to curate the mess that is their app store…
IA?
Spoken like a true Microsoft and Google agent.
Because I think we should protect people that are not tech savvy. I am open for a debate
Your heart is in the right place, but your mind is not.
Google et.al. is pushing for IDV in every segment due to lobby pressure from meta to build REAL user database for advertisement purposes in the age of LLM drivel. Every “protect the *” has meta’s government lobbyists behind it.
There could be alternative approaches, but meta’s goals just so happens to align well with a fascist government’s that thinks they need to stamp out dissenting voices and anonymity.
Total control and taking away freedom is not negotiable. Not literally, but: “Maybe we should ban programming languages on Windows and Linux too, because it could be used to program viruses. We should protect the not so tech savvy.” See what I mean? Instead we should look forward to a better way of helping them. The proposed way of Google is not acceptable.
80% of android users will freely install whatever APK from wherever.
A ridiculous and absurd lie. 90% have zero clue what one is, let alone go into the developer settings (there are one, maybe two settings you have to enable) to change the settings to even make that possible. Why are you lying about this? It’s weird.
I have over 2 decades of background in hardcore IT-Sec, i know my stuff. And you? What is your qualification, where are your sources?
I wonder if a statement like this ever once convinced anyone of anything. My guess would be it nearly always has the opposite effect. You basically told me that whatever I know doesn’t matter because “trust me bro”. For all I know, you’re the worst source ever for literally every topic. Your articles didn’t back you up. Why do people bother with shit like this? “I’m an expert so what I say goes” is idiotic and in no way addresses the common sense point I was making: the average person definitely doesn’t know or install apks because of fucking course they don’t. If you said 80% would if scammed, that’s at least plausible but I’m not even sure I could believe that. The well is poisoned now in any case so you’re not convincing anyone here after this… Whatever masturbatory shit this was. Or just shilling for a corporation? Who the fuck knows
That is why I linked sources. I don’t say trust me bro.
You do, actually.
I have over 2 decades of background in hardcore IT-Sec, i know my stuff. And you? What is your qualification, where are your sources?
This translates to anyone who isn’t you to:
I know a lot, you know very little. Trust me, not you.
And again if you’re going to make this 80% claim and then say you sourced it, don’t link shit that’s sort of related but in no way backing up that claim. No one here is saying malware isn’t a problem. You’re getting downvoted for making specific claims which are absurd.
That is a general issue of online debates.
I can not squash 20 years of daily learning into a comment.
I can point you to sources where you can verify it our self. Social engineering studies, blog post about campaigns from other researchers.
Placing m credentials there is my kind of saying “I have insight, ask”, but how do you think should something like this communicated.
We have a highly sensitive topic, with a lot of obsolete or just misinformation.
It is a highly complex topic that can not be simply understood by most persons, but social media opens a place for debate anyways.
There are many other examples for this happening and it is bad. Very bad.
Another example Google wants to get rid of third party cookies. Instead they want to to adspace action on your local system. In our browser, protected. But bad, because Google. Firefox could implement the same API on better, but no, bad because Google.
Google is not the good guy. But just throwing out every fucking Idea because Google Had it (or was forced into it, allowing sideloading again was because of pressure) is just not what we need
This is so much beating around the bush. Somehow you’ve managed to ignore the 15 times I’ve pointed it out: most users do not install apks. That’s all. You claimed they did and I said that was dumb. So anything else is just a distraction from the point I was trying to make. Google is pretty shitty but you might have a point that not everything they do is shitty… But that’s not what the conversation started as. And I don’t really care to change the subject at this point.
