5 ms·

Windows was a far more liberal and fair platform than Android is. Once you have your software installed, it could do with the system all it needed, if the user

Windows was a far more liberal and fair platform than Android is. Once you have your software installed, it could do with the system all it needed, if the user gave it enough rights. On Android, you can't really run your app in the background (trust me, we develop an app that depends on being constantly in the background), so the developers are forced to use proprietary push notifications, which are fully controlled by Google. ... And each new version of Android puts more and more restrictions on things. For example, in Android 6 I could record incoming calls easily. Not so much on Android 9, "you are forbidden to do that because it is illegal in some jurisdictions" (not in mine, btw!)

29083011397778 6y ago
> you can't really run your app in the background This, last I checked, was OEM specific. I agree with your point, most OEMs are indescribably awful about killing any and all background apps - this does not, however, make it Google's fault. I've disabled GApps and the GSF on my phone, but Riot/Element still works quite well with background notifications when it's excluded from battery optimizations. > I could record incoming calls easily. This is still possible, and I do it, with the stock dailer on android 8.1. I use a VOIP provider that offers call recording. As it's my primary number, all my calls are recorded with no interaction on my part. Off-topic, but transcribed voicemail is offered as well - which I think used to be carrier or even iPhone specific. There's lots of functionality in Android that's not natively supported, but that doesn't mean it can't be done :) VOIP provider in question (that I'm not affiliated with) is voip.ms, in case anyone is curious.
- Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
  > This, last I checked, was OEM specific. Umm, no. It is nice how you cite your anecdotal evidence about riot, but if you would study this issue a bit you would know, that on Android 1.5 you could launch a background process and it would stay in memory indefinitely, and on recent androids it's only possible with persistent notificaton icon (to which a lot of users complain about). If you don't have the persistent notification, then oops. If you don't want to research this subject yourself, you should probably trust me, because we have an app with >1M installs that depends on being in memory. >> For example, in Android 6 I could record incoming calls easily. Not so much on Android 9, > This is still possible, and I do it, with the stock dailer on android 8.1 Let me check, was Android 8.1 released later than Android 9? Hm, I guess, not. Anyway, this link [1] would be a good place to start to learn more on this subject. Let me cite: "The official API for call recording was removed with the launch of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Developers are hard to stop, so they found workarounds to keep this feature alive, but Google finally killed off the ability to record calls with Android 9.0 Pie." So, do you agree now with my point that Android is becoming a more and more restricted platform in every way? [1]: https://www.androidauthority.com/record-calls-android-1019109/ https://www.androidauthority.com/record-calls-android-101910...
mav3rick 6y ago
This the kind of comment that only portrays one side and the readers think "Google BAAAAAD". You know what happened when background services were allowed completely, battery issues, crashes, just a complete shitshow. One one hand HN raves about the iOS quality, OTOH blames Android for trying to do the same thing.
- Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
  It should up to user to decide what to do with their devices. Operating system should just ask for permissions to perform tasks with potentially harmful effects, and notify on high energy drain. If a user is fine with that, he shouldn't be handcuffed by OS vendor from doing what he needs. > One one hand HN raves about the iOS quality, OTOH blames Android for trying to do the same thing. Oh, good old straw man argument? Actually, Android started out as an almost completely free GNU/Linux computer, and is slowly morphing into the same almost fully locked clone of iOS. And in my mind it's NOT a good thing. And yes, Apple's monopoly on sending push notifications on iOS is as harmful, as is Google's on Android.
  - mav3rick 6y ago
    Please put AOSP on your devices. Let us others have a sane device experience not dealing with bad apps.
    - Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
      And how do you suggest working with restricted background running, given that AOSP still has precisely the same policy regarding background tasks? And you can't even rely on push notifications, because as I understand you suggest getting rid of Google Apps too - and Push notifications come only with Google Apps.
      - mav3rick 6y ago
        You can modify AOSP how you like. If you want hacker friendly behavior, be ready to hack.

29083011397778 6y ago

> you can't really run your app in the background This, last I checked, was OEM specific. I agree with your point, most OEMs are indescribably awful about killing any and all background apps - this does not, however, make it Google's fault. I've disabled GApps and the GSF on my phone, but Riot/Element still works quite well with background notifications when it's excluded from battery optimizations. > I could record incoming calls easily. This is still possible, and I do it, with the stock dailer on android 8.1. I use a VOIP provider that offers call recording. As it's my primary number, all my calls are recorded with no interaction on my part. Off-topic, but transcribed voicemail is offered as well - which I think used to be carrier or even iPhone specific. There's lots of functionality in Android that's not natively supported, but that doesn't mean it can't be done :) VOIP provider in question (that I'm not affiliated with) is voip.ms, in case anyone is curious.

Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
> This, last I checked, was OEM specific. Umm, no. It is nice how you cite your anecdotal evidence about riot, but if you would study this issue a bit you would know, that on Android 1.5 you could launch a background process and it would stay in memory indefinitely, and on recent androids it's only possible with persistent notificaton icon (to which a lot of users complain about). If you don't have the persistent notification, then oops. If you don't want to research this subject yourself, you should probably trust me, because we have an app with >1M installs that depends on being in memory. >> For example, in Android 6 I could record incoming calls easily. Not so much on Android 9, > This is still possible, and I do it, with the stock dailer on android 8.1 Let me check, was Android 8.1 released later than Android 9? Hm, I guess, not. Anyway, this link [1] would be a good place to start to learn more on this subject. Let me cite: "The official API for call recording was removed with the launch of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Developers are hard to stop, so they found workarounds to keep this feature alive, but Google finally killed off the ability to record calls with Android 9.0 Pie." So, do you agree now with my point that Android is becoming a more and more restricted platform in every way? [1]: https://www.androidauthority.com/record-calls-android-1019109/ https://www.androidauthority.com/record-calls-android-101910...

mav3rick 6y ago

This the kind of comment that only portrays one side and the readers think "Google BAAAAAD". You know what happened when background services were allowed completely, battery issues, crashes, just a complete shitshow. One one hand HN raves about the iOS quality, OTOH blames Android for trying to do the same thing.

Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
It should up to user to decide what to do with their devices. Operating system should just ask for permissions to perform tasks with potentially harmful effects, and notify on high energy drain. If a user is fine with that, he shouldn't be handcuffed by OS vendor from doing what he needs. > One one hand HN raves about the iOS quality, OTOH blames Android for trying to do the same thing. Oh, good old straw man argument? Actually, Android started out as an almost completely free GNU/Linux computer, and is slowly morphing into the same almost fully locked clone of iOS. And in my mind it's NOT a good thing. And yes, Apple's monopoly on sending push notifications on iOS is as harmful, as is Google's on Android.
- mav3rick 6y ago
  Please put AOSP on your devices. Let us others have a sane device experience not dealing with bad apps.
  - Andrew_nenakhov 6y ago
    And how do you suggest working with restricted background running, given that AOSP still has precisely the same policy regarding background tasks? And you can't even rely on push notifications, because as I understand you suggest getting rid of Google Apps too - and Push notifications come only with Google Apps.
    - mav3rick 6y ago
      You can modify AOSP how you like. If you want hacker friendly behavior, be ready to hack.