5 ms·

> They don’t just want to remake the world in their image. They want to remake our individual lives. Each Stack — bar Facebook, for now — offers the same awkwar

by buro9 9y ago

> They don’t just want to remake the world in their image. They want to remake our individual lives. Each Stack — bar Facebook, for now — offers the same awkward bargain: commit wholly & wholeheartedly to our ecosystem, and we will better your life. And it just might work, if any of the newer Google experiences worked on all Google accounts. My experience as a Google Apps / G Suite user, is that few to none of the newer Google products and features are either available or offer anything more than a basic and perfunctory service. "One account, all of Google", not if the account isn't a Gmail account. It's the biggest thing that is broken at Google, and it's broken in every product department, every team, every feature. It's also why I haven't purchased a Pixel (why? When much of the benefit I'm denied access to, I cannot even ask Google Assistant for my agenda), and I haven't purchased a Home (why? When again it is limited and locked down), and my Android TV seems to lack integration with Photos (which I assume is because of my G Suite account but maybe it's just crappy). Google accounts seem to be driving towards 2 very different and polarised futures, a personal one and a professional one. Having only professional accounts means that all of the personal features are unavailable.

robotmay 9y ago
It took me bloody ages to find the toggle that allows Google Now to be used on an Android device tied to a G Suite account. We don't even manage our devices. Turns out it's something to do with enabling support for the activity log or something. That was a fun few hours. I also love how no matter what Google site I'm using, it's signed into the wrong account. It's almost comical.
m12k 9y ago
I'm developing a web app that can be installed via the G Suite Marketplace. They also have an 'Integrate with Google' button that we can put on our website so users can just install/grant permissions from there - sounds great - in principle. Except the users don't have any way of choosing which account it uses. So if they happened to log into their personal Gmail account before their work G Suite account, well, then they're just shit out of luck and can't install. I asked about a fix (e.g. a 'select account' box like you get when logging in) on StackOverflow and filed a report on their developer support site - of course, this being Google, there's been no answer more than a month later, and I doubt there ever will be... Anyways, in the meantime, the only thing we can do is pretend that button doesn't exist and instead direct users to the marketplace to install. Except, since our app is only installable by G Suite admins, if you happened to log into your personal Gmail account first, our listing is not even visible... Google's whole account situation is a dumpster fire - and don't even get me started on the APIs they have on G Suite, that seem to have grown organically out of an 'admins would like to script a bit with the data'-use case and only added 3rd party apps as an afterthought. I wonder if the G Suite team is just chronically understaffed and underfunded or if they just don't realize how broken the whole thing is.
- seastonATccs 9y ago
  The google OAuth flow rolling out now has a more conspicuous account choose. Before when installing/authorizing the app selecting the account was virtually hidden.
- thesuitonym 9y ago
  >filed a report on their developer support site - of course, this being Google, there's been no answer more than a month later, and I doubt there ever will be... Don't lose hope, we filed a similar request and then forgot about it. Several months later, we got a response and the issue has now been resolved. Good luck!
- skybrian 9y ago
  This probably isn't much consolation, but as a workaround, separate Chrome profiles for work versus home is a good way to avoid account switching bugs. (Or use two different browsers.)
basch 9y ago
It's identical at Microsoft. Your Office 365 AAD account does everything, unless it needs to be paired with a Microsoft (live, xbox, skype, outlook.com/hotmail account)
jcastro 9y ago
> Android TV seems to lack integration with Photos (which I assume is because of my G Suite account but maybe it's just crappy). That's not your account, the google photos app doesn't support AndroidTV natively, only casting is supported.
scholia 9y ago
> Each Stack — bar Facebook, for now — offers the same awkward bargain: commit wholly & wholeheartedly to our ecosystem, and we will better your life. However, the stacks (ecosystems) need not be mutually exclusive. For example, Microsoft's ecosystem includes dozens of apps for iOS and Android, and it has supported Macs for as long as Apple. It also has Linux options for Windows 10 and Azure. Apple mainly supports Apple hardware, but it still has iTunes and iCloud support for Windows.
Sargos 9y ago
Looking at it from an engineering and legal perspective each one of Google's products and new features is a minefield of new and un-proven tech that would be outright dangerous to enable for a work or education account (which you have even though you originally had it for personal use and it was grandfathered in). They do slowly roll out features as they mature and the legal implications are ironed out but Apps accounts are never going to be bleeding edge and for good reason.
giobox 9y ago
> "One account, all of Google", not if the account isn't a Gmail account. Having recently been burned by this, I can wholeheartedly agree. The list of features that don't work if your Google account is not "@gmail.com" has caught me out so many times. The problem is even worse if you are an Android user and have a bunch of app purchases tied to a non gmail google account - as I recently discovered when trying to add my old Google Apps (custom domain name) based Google account to our Google play family plan. The lack of documentation on what works/doesn't work is staggering as well.

by buro9 9y ago

robotmay 9y ago

It took me bloody ages to find the toggle that allows Google Now to be used on an Android device tied to a G Suite account. We don't even manage our devices. Turns out it's something to do with enabling support for the activity log or something. That was a fun few hours. I also love how no matter what Google site I'm using, it's signed into the wrong account. It's almost comical.

m12k 9y ago

I'm developing a web app that can be installed via the G Suite Marketplace. They also have an 'Integrate with Google' button that we can put on our website so users can just install/grant permissions from there - sounds great - in principle. Except the users don't have any way of choosing which account it uses. So if they happened to log into their personal Gmail account before their work G Suite account, well, then they're just shit out of luck and can't install. I asked about a fix (e.g. a 'select account' box like you get when logging in) on StackOverflow and filed a report on their developer support site - of course, this being Google, there's been no answer more than a month later, and I doubt there ever will be... Anyways, in the meantime, the only thing we can do is pretend that button doesn't exist and instead direct users to the marketplace to install. Except, since our app is only installable by G Suite admins, if you happened to log into your personal Gmail account first, our listing is not even visible... Google's whole account situation is a dumpster fire - and don't even get me started on the APIs they have on G Suite, that seem to have grown organically out of an 'admins would like to script a bit with the data'-use case and only added 3rd party apps as an afterthought. I wonder if the G Suite team is just chronically understaffed and underfunded or if they just don't realize how broken the whole thing is.

seastonATccs 9y ago
The google OAuth flow rolling out now has a more conspicuous account choose. Before when installing/authorizing the app selecting the account was virtually hidden.
thesuitonym 9y ago
>filed a report on their developer support site - of course, this being Google, there's been no answer more than a month later, and I doubt there ever will be... Don't lose hope, we filed a similar request and then forgot about it. Several months later, we got a response and the issue has now been resolved. Good luck!
skybrian 9y ago
This probably isn't much consolation, but as a workaround, separate Chrome profiles for work versus home is a good way to avoid account switching bugs. (Or use two different browsers.)

basch 9y ago

It's identical at Microsoft. Your Office 365 AAD account does everything, unless it needs to be paired with a Microsoft (live, xbox, skype, outlook.com/hotmail account)

jcastro 9y ago

> Android TV seems to lack integration with Photos (which I assume is because of my G Suite account but maybe it's just crappy). That's not your account, the google photos app doesn't support AndroidTV natively, only casting is supported.

scholia 9y ago

> Each Stack — bar Facebook, for now — offers the same awkward bargain: commit wholly & wholeheartedly to our ecosystem, and we will better your life. However, the stacks (ecosystems) need not be mutually exclusive. For example, Microsoft's ecosystem includes dozens of apps for iOS and Android, and it has supported Macs for as long as Apple. It also has Linux options for Windows 10 and Azure. Apple mainly supports Apple hardware, but it still has iTunes and iCloud support for Windows.

Sargos 9y ago

Looking at it from an engineering and legal perspective each one of Google's products and new features is a minefield of new and un-proven tech that would be outright dangerous to enable for a work or education account (which you have even though you originally had it for personal use and it was grandfathered in). They do slowly roll out features as they mature and the legal implications are ironed out but Apps accounts are never going to be bleeding edge and for good reason.

giobox 9y ago

> "One account, all of Google", not if the account isn't a Gmail account. Having recently been burned by this, I can wholeheartedly agree. The list of features that don't work if your Google account is not "@gmail.com" has caught me out so many times. The problem is even worse if you are an Android user and have a bunch of app purchases tied to a non gmail google account - as I recently discovered when trying to add my old Google Apps (custom domain name) based Google account to our Google play family plan. The lack of documentation on what works/doesn't work is staggering as well.