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> Even more importantly, they need to allow installation of apps via links without requiring an App Store altogether. I really don't know about this, or rather

by mcintyre1994 6y ago

> Even more importantly, they need to allow installation of apps via links without requiring an App Store altogether. I really don't know about this, or rather I understand why Apple might argue that it's protecting users in addition to its services revenue. As far as I can tell from my mum's Android phone, Facebook has a lucrative business of advertising absolute garbage borderline-malware apps through their Android apps to people who don't know any better. It might be that Apple don't expose the APIs you need to make an iOS device a terrible experience for a user who installs your app at all. But if there are any holes in that walled garden once you drop the app store and review, a lot of iPhones will be a lot worse because Facebook will push horrible stuff at their less savvy users.

kmeisthax 6y ago
So, here's the thing: Apple already has this, and has had it for a decade. When large companies want to have an internal app, they go to Apple and buy an enterprise signing certificate, and then you can just download and run the app. Well, almost - there's two hitches. 1. You have to manually trust the developer before the app will launch, which involves a huge dance of finding the developer trust settings (which are well hidden) and then selecting the developer of the enterprise-signed app 2. Apple will revoke your account if they catch your apps distributing outside of your organization Technically speaking, there's zero changes Apple has to make in order to allow competition in app distribution. It's all policy. Apple could implement notarization requirements like they did with macOS, and they should, but that doesn't affect the underlying fact that people worried about third-party app distribution are already too late to the party. Here's the thing: plenty of developers abuse the system anyway. But it's extremely obvious and signposted to the user that they're installing a third-party app Apple hasn't reviewed. You aren't going to just click a link on a Facebook ad and suddenly have malware on your phone.
- nomel 6y ago
  > You aren't going to just click a link on a Facebook ad and suddenly have malware on your phone. I'm not sure this would be too much of a burden. After all, it wasn't long ago that the Amazon Prime app had to be side loaded on android devices [1]. If the most vulnerable users are presented with "you need this to do what you want, here's how to install it", they'll follow the directions, even if difficult, because everything tech is relatively difficult and convoluted anyways. [1] https://www.pcmag.com/news/amazon-prime-video-app-finally-available-on-google-play https://www.pcmag.com/news/amazon-prime-video-app-finally-av...

kmeisthax 6y ago

So, here's the thing: Apple already has this, and has had it for a decade. When large companies want to have an internal app, they go to Apple and buy an enterprise signing certificate, and then you can just download and run the app. Well, almost - there's two hitches. 1. You have to manually trust the developer before the app will launch, which involves a huge dance of finding the developer trust settings (which are well hidden) and then selecting the developer of the enterprise-signed app 2. Apple will revoke your account if they catch your apps distributing outside of your organization Technically speaking, there's zero changes Apple has to make in order to allow competition in app distribution. It's all policy. Apple could implement notarization requirements like they did with macOS, and they should, but that doesn't affect the underlying fact that people worried about third-party app distribution are already too late to the party. Here's the thing: plenty of developers abuse the system anyway. But it's extremely obvious and signposted to the user that they're installing a third-party app Apple hasn't reviewed. You aren't going to just click a link on a Facebook ad and suddenly have malware on your phone.

nomel 6y ago
> You aren't going to just click a link on a Facebook ad and suddenly have malware on your phone. I'm not sure this would be too much of a burden. After all, it wasn't long ago that the Amazon Prime app had to be side loaded on android devices [1]. If the most vulnerable users are presented with "you need this to do what you want, here's how to install it", they'll follow the directions, even if difficult, because everything tech is relatively difficult and convoluted anyways. [1] https://www.pcmag.com/news/amazon-prime-video-app-finally-available-on-google-play https://www.pcmag.com/news/amazon-prime-video-app-finally-av...