5 ms·

One of the main arguments will be that Google doesn't make it easy enough to sideload apps, purposefully, adding friction as a dark pattern.

by loceng 3y ago

lawlessone 3y ago
Doing this on Android is still trivial compared to doing it on iOS. Doesn't the US use "case law"? And would the verdict in the iOS case set the precedent here? Saying that, Apple was ordered to do some other things they don't like so maybe that's what they want applied to Google?
- leereeves 3y ago
  I don't think the Apple case sets a precedent, because that court didn't say that Apple wasn't a monopolist. > “The court does not find that it is impossible; only that Epic Games failed in its burden to demonstrate Apple is an illegal monopolist,” [U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers] wrote. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/10/apple-epic-decision-judge-market-monopoly/?itid=lk_inline_manual_16 https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/10/apple-e...
  - singleshot_ 3y ago
    Precedent is not set by a district court, but through the appeals process.
wruza 3y ago
How exactly could Google improve the experience?
- lawlessone 3y ago
  Does windows still have to show that menu when you install of alternative browsers? Maybe like that?
  - wruza 3y ago
    This could works for stores, not for apks. But I believe Epic would be happy to appear on that list anyway. That said, isn’t Epic Store (or what its name is) on PlayStore already? Unable check due to network issues.
kyriakos 3y ago
It's literally 2 clicks
- kevincox 3y ago
  Yeah, what Android has seems like a very reasonable balance of protecting users who don't know better vs usability. I do have complaints about Google embedding itself and privileging its apps in Android but difficulty of sideloading is not one of them.
- ThatPlayer 3y ago
  One problem is that until recently (Android 13) it's two clicks for every app every update. Google Play Store gets to update apps in the background, but that's impossible with F-Droid (without rooting). If I want to update 10 apps on F-Droid, that's a prompt for each one.
  - kyriakos 3y ago
    Only the first app you side load requires to accept allowing non play store apps. I'm not sure about fdroid but samsung store updates are seamless same as play store.
    - ThatPlayer 3y ago
      It still requires a button to bring up the prompt. It would be a worse user experience to prompt the user without any warning. Compared to Google being able to do it all in the background. Samsung store can do it as it's bundled with the Samsung phone and installed as a system application that gets the same permissions as Google Play Store. A user can't give these permissions to a user installed app store without turning it into a system application, which isn't possible without root. For example if I tried to install Samsung's store on my Pixel. F-droid is able to do it if you have root: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/privileged-extension/ https://gitlab.com/fdroid/privileged-extension/

One of the main arguments will be that Google doesn't make it easy enough to sideload apps, purposefully, adding friction as a dark pattern.

by loceng 3y ago

One of the main arguments will be that Google doesn't make it easy enough to sideload apps, purposefully, adding friction as a dark pattern.

lawlessone 3y ago

Doing this on Android is still trivial compared to doing it on iOS. Doesn't the US use "case law"? And would the verdict in the iOS case set the precedent here? Saying that, Apple was ordered to do some other things they don't like so maybe that's what they want applied to Google?

leereeves 3y ago
I don't think the Apple case sets a precedent, because that court didn't say that Apple wasn't a monopolist. > “The court does not find that it is impossible; only that Epic Games failed in its burden to demonstrate Apple is an illegal monopolist,” [U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers] wrote. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/10/apple-epic-decision-judge-market-monopoly/?itid=lk_inline_manual_16 https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/10/apple-e...
- singleshot_ 3y ago
  Precedent is not set by a district court, but through the appeals process.

wruza 3y ago

How exactly could Google improve the experience?

lawlessone 3y ago
Does windows still have to show that menu when you install of alternative browsers? Maybe like that?
- wruza 3y ago
  This could works for stores, not for apks. But I believe Epic would be happy to appear on that list anyway. That said, isn’t Epic Store (or what its name is) on PlayStore already? Unable check due to network issues.

kyriakos 3y ago

It's literally 2 clicks

kevincox 3y ago
Yeah, what Android has seems like a very reasonable balance of protecting users who don't know better vs usability. I do have complaints about Google embedding itself and privileging its apps in Android but difficulty of sideloading is not one of them.
ThatPlayer 3y ago
One problem is that until recently (Android 13) it's two clicks for every app every update. Google Play Store gets to update apps in the background, but that's impossible with F-Droid (without rooting). If I want to update 10 apps on F-Droid, that's a prompt for each one.
- kyriakos 3y ago
  Only the first app you side load requires to accept allowing non play store apps. I'm not sure about fdroid but samsung store updates are seamless same as play store.
  - ThatPlayer 3y ago
    It still requires a button to bring up the prompt. It would be a worse user experience to prompt the user without any warning. Compared to Google being able to do it all in the background. Samsung store can do it as it's bundled with the Samsung phone and installed as a system application that gets the same permissions as Google Play Store. A user can't give these permissions to a user installed app store without turning it into a system application, which isn't possible without root. For example if I tried to install Samsung's store on my Pixel. F-droid is able to do it if you have root: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/privileged-extension/ https://gitlab.com/fdroid/privileged-extension/