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Google's curation of the Play Store, while protecting their own economic interests, feels a bit like a dark pattern. The fact that adding " n" to most keywords

Google's curation of the Play Store, while protecting their own economic interests, feels a bit like a dark pattern. The fact that adding " n" to most keywords prompts " no ads" in the suggestions shows how popular this is. If I search for "tuner", I get two sponsored results first, then five ad-containing results with average 4.4 rating, then an ad-free app with 4.9 stars. My preference would be searching by rating with a minimum number of installs. Even using the 4.5+ filter seems to be the quickest way to find completely ad-free apps. But, what really works best (but never quickest) for many apps is to find an APK somewhere else, like Github.

PrimeDirective 5y ago
Sorry for the offtopic, but can you tell me the name of the ad-less tuner app? I've been searching for one, but the best I found was Fender's. Which is pretty ok, too.
- tambre 5y ago
  I also ended up with Fender's, but it wasn't terribly responsive so eventually purchased a strobe tuner [0]. Has some disadvantages over something like a smartphone, but better for my simple usage. [0]: https://www.thomann.de/intl/ee/peterson_stroboclip_hd.htm https://www.thomann.de/intl/ee/peterson_stroboclip_hd.htm
  - PrimeDirective 5y ago
    I do have a Boss TU-2, but I'm sometimes in a situation where I'm too lazy to use a cable but have my phone handy (because I record ideas on my phone)
  - jerf 5y ago
    How can you have an electronic strobe tuner? I understand the mechanics of mechanical ones (they're really quite simple), but how can you have one with an LCD display? Is it merely a weird way of outputting the same electronic tuning you can get from any FFT-based tuning, and they're just riding the reputation of the mechanical devices?
- quitethelogic 5y ago
  I use TE Tuner and like it. I don't use all the features, but the tuner and metronome are pretty great.
- PennRobotics 5y ago
  Free Universal Tuner, by Dmitry Pogrebnyak. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.aterlux.guitartuner https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.aterlux.gui... I appreciate that you can choose the microphone source, change detection parameters, and easily select off-440 tunings. It's responsive and accurate enough for my playing. The only issue I ever had was on the Fairphone 3. Starting a few months ago, if I had Google Assistant always listening, the tuner would stop working. I've since disabled Assistant and changed phones.
praptak 5y ago
> My preference would be searching by rating with a minimum number of installs This problem has a better solution - sort/search by the lower confidence bound for the rating: https://www.evanmiller.org/how-not-to-sort-by-average-rating.html https://www.evanmiller.org/how-not-to-sort-by-average-rating...
ink404 5y ago
Would prefer max installs filter instead of min to filter out the bigger apps that have budgets for seo
NoGravitas 5y ago
> But, what really works best (but never quickest) for many apps is to find an APK somewhere else, like Github. My phone isn't totally de-Googled, but I always make a point of seeing if what I need can be found on F-Droid, and only searching the Play Store if nothing there will serve.
- spaniard89277 5y ago
  Same here. Also, using aptoide for Android TV.

PrimeDirective 5y ago

Sorry for the offtopic, but can you tell me the name of the ad-less tuner app? I've been searching for one, but the best I found was Fender's. Which is pretty ok, too.

tambre 5y ago
I also ended up with Fender's, but it wasn't terribly responsive so eventually purchased a strobe tuner [0]. Has some disadvantages over something like a smartphone, but better for my simple usage. [0]: https://www.thomann.de/intl/ee/peterson_stroboclip_hd.htm https://www.thomann.de/intl/ee/peterson_stroboclip_hd.htm
- PrimeDirective 5y ago
  I do have a Boss TU-2, but I'm sometimes in a situation where I'm too lazy to use a cable but have my phone handy (because I record ideas on my phone)
- jerf 5y ago
  How can you have an electronic strobe tuner? I understand the mechanics of mechanical ones (they're really quite simple), but how can you have one with an LCD display? Is it merely a weird way of outputting the same electronic tuning you can get from any FFT-based tuning, and they're just riding the reputation of the mechanical devices?
quitethelogic 5y ago
I use TE Tuner and like it. I don't use all the features, but the tuner and metronome are pretty great.
PennRobotics 5y ago
Free Universal Tuner, by Dmitry Pogrebnyak. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.aterlux.guitartuner https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.aterlux.gui... I appreciate that you can choose the microphone source, change detection parameters, and easily select off-440 tunings. It's responsive and accurate enough for my playing. The only issue I ever had was on the Fairphone 3. Starting a few months ago, if I had Google Assistant always listening, the tuner would stop working. I've since disabled Assistant and changed phones.

praptak 5y ago

> My preference would be searching by rating with a minimum number of installs This problem has a better solution - sort/search by the lower confidence bound for the rating: https://www.evanmiller.org/how-not-to-sort-by-average-rating.html https://www.evanmiller.org/how-not-to-sort-by-average-rating...

ink404 5y ago

Would prefer max installs filter instead of min to filter out the bigger apps that have budgets for seo

NoGravitas 5y ago

> But, what really works best (but never quickest) for many apps is to find an APK somewhere else, like Github. My phone isn't totally de-Googled, but I always make a point of seeing if what I need can be found on F-Droid, and only searching the Play Store if nothing there will serve.

spaniard89277 5y ago
Same here. Also, using aptoide for Android TV.