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Developers Now Required to Share Phone Number and Address on EU App Store
- beretguy 2y agoPeople should stop developing for these closed gardens and just make websites if need be.
- oidar 2y agoa lot of software needs to work offline.
- miah_ 2y agoSoftware has historically been offline first. This is not a issue.
- robin_reala 2y agoWebsites can trivially work offline with service workers.
- DougN7 2y agoHonest question: is there a way to receive the equivalent of app notifications on a mobile app from a website? It would need to be more than just a text message such that clicking the message opens the “app” to a specific place regarding the alert (and automatically handling login).
- jauntywundrkind 2y agoYes. https://web.dev/articles/push-notifications-notification-behaviour https://web.dev/articles/push-notifications-notification-beh...
- DougN7 2y agoThis doesn’t seem like it would work if the mobile browser was closed, phone was locked, etc. Am I wrong? I’d like to get away from apps but this doesn’t seem like a complete solution.
- jauntywundrkind 2y agoNope it works fine on mobile! Android can spin up apps if notifications come in & will spin up Chrome which will spin up your service-worker! I have my qualms with Android but this seems well designed! https://web.dev/articles/push-notifications-faq#why_doesnt_push_work_when_the_browser_is_closed https://web.dev/articles/push-notifications-faq#why_doesnt_p... Desktop OSes don't have anything parallel, so yeah, you need the browser running. But nothing has to be on screen.
- DougN7 2y agoDo you know if iOS has similar support?
- jauntywundrkind 2y agoYes, push notifications don't require Safari to be open already on iOS.
- wiredfool 2y agoAnd if you’re in Germany, that website needs to have an imprint with similar details.
- beretguy 2y ago> imprint with similar details What does that mean?
- wiredfool 2y agoIt means that if you publish a website in Germany, you need to have your real name and address on the site, or some enterprising lawyer will probably sue you.
- beretguy 2y agoOK. Then write websites instead of apps, unless you are in Germany. If you are in Germany go ahead and develop apps for proprietary storefronts.
- TiredOfLife 2y agoAt least in Germany even websites need to list address and phone.
- rdsnsca 2y agoThis is an EU law.... a quote from the artice "EU trader requirement in the European Union is now being enforced"
- beretguy 2y agoSure. What are you trying to say?
- whitehexagon 2y agoYeah I took that decision a while back; mostly when 64bit was being forced upon us, the multitude of new screen sizes, and the 'support this new tech or we wont approve your app' attitude. I am so very glad to be out of those walled gardens. And every story since has only reaffirmed my decision, especially this latest news. It would be nice to turn the tables and have some of these giant companies disclose their entire complicated tax avoidance structures to public scrutiny. Anyway I quit smart phones a year back, and would ask fellows developers to still consider working on 'normal' websites before the world is totally controlled by these closed garden ecosystems.
- divan 2y agoUntil wasm fully kicks in in browsers, websites – or, more precisely, web apps - are just dev environment built on top one of the ill-suited tech stack for UI apps. It's very limiting and provides one of the most frustrating dev experiences. A lot of developers prefer not to work with web simply because dev-experience is one of the worst, despite the sheer number of hacks on top of hacks built to hide the fundamental flaws of this UI stack.
- beretguy 2y agoNo idea what you are talking about.
- divan 2y agoThat's okay. I'm talking about the fact that web-stack is built on top typesetting engine (HTML) developed in 80-s for completely different task. Same for hackish scripting solution developed in two weeks and called Mocha (later renamed into Javascript), and an ad-hoc solution for styling HTML called CSS. These three pillars of web stack were never meant or designed to be used for UI prgramming and user-facing apps development. And also about the fact that if anyone wants to offer their app on the web, they have literally no choice but to write software using that stack. Many times the choice between "use web-stack" and "use proper UI framework" boils down to acceptability of slower and more painful distribution process. With web apps there is virtually no distribution process – users download app every time they want to use (because, of course, it makes sense, right?). But with other solutions, there is some sort of distribution process – like Apple/Google App Store or app repositories. Which makes app distribution more secure and efficient, but adds some pain to the process. If you want to reach as many users as possible, you need web, and that's how we all got locked in into writing apps using typesetting engine and pretending that it's okay.
- xigoi 2y ago> And also about the fact that if anyone wants to offer their app on the web, they have literally no choice but to write software using that stack. If you want to offer your app on Android, you have literally no choice but to use Android Studio. Is that really better? At least it’s possible to write HTML on an old computer without running out of RAM.
- daedrdev 2y agoThis is a government regulation in the EU
- beretguy 2y agoSure. What are you trying to say?
- mysterydip 2y agoIs it possible to have offline access to a website app? My main use case is developing for tablets and phones for offline use. It would simplify my life greatly if I could just direct people to a webpage.
- beretguy 2y agoThere is offline-first CouchDB: https://couchdb.apache.org/ https://couchdb.apache.org/.
- TazeTSchnitzel 2y agoGoogle Play has also recently started requiring this, and I know someone affected by it. It is very problematic for small developers because they may have to publish their home address, which opens them up to the possibility of harassment and so on. I don't think it's a good change.
- happyopossum 2y ago> they may have to publish their home address Wouldn’t a PO Box be a better option? They run as little as $10/mo for one at the USPS.
- beeboobaa3 2y agoNot allowed.
- lapcat 2y agoIt is allowed. I did exactly that for my apps.
- beeboobaa3 2y agoIt depends on how you're publishing your apps. If you have a registered business which publishes the app then you can use the business address, so a PO box might be viable. You'll need to make sure your business is registered on that address in your national business registry. Otherwise you are required to give your personal address. See e.g. https://dev.to/svprdga/privacy-nightmare-as-google-plans-to-publish-your-home-address-1g3d https://dev.to/svprdga/privacy-nightmare-as-google-plans-to-... but there are plenty of other sources that match my experience.
- lapcat 2y agoI don't have a registered business. Nonetheless, I used a P.O. Box for my EU trader address in the App Store—a P.O. Box that I opened for this specific purpose—as well as a Google Voice phone number. These were both accepted by Apple and published in the EU.
- ramshanker 2y agoYou are required to provide a phone number. All phone have dual SIM capabilities these days. I hope there is no rule to pick up the phone when it rings. !! As for address, no workaround yet.
- rdsnsca 2y agoThis is because of an EU law. A quote from the artice "EU trader requirement in the European Union is now being enforced"
- blackeyeblitzar 2y agoIt’s weird to see democracies anonymity. Why was this a part of the DSA? What problem is it fixing?
- throw4950sh06 2y agoThe problem of effectively fining people for bullshit reasons.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- hankchinaski 2y ago> The Digital Services Act (DSA) in the European Union requires Apple to verify and display trader contact information for all "traders" who are distributing apps on the App Store in the European Union. Developers who make money from the App Store through either an upfront purchase price or through in-app purchases are considered traders, regardless of size We all thank the bureaucrats in Bruxelles for this nonsense
- olliej 2y agoOh, I thought this was people complaining about having to share their address with Apple and was like “that’s bs just do that, why wasn’t it required already”. I didn’t realize that they meant “share with the public on the store”. That seems pretty awful (I understand the intent, but I think such a law is geared towards actual businesses rather than hobby/side gig level devs). I think this is one of those things where having a mechanism to directly contact the developer does make sense (as this is clearly intended as a mechanism to serve legal docs so often requires physical address), but given for many people this is their home address not a business address that seems super unsafe. I don’t know what the PO Box situation is like in the EU either, but I know in some places in the US there’s a waiting list. To me I think that maybe the safer solution here would be for the appropriate EU agency to allow smaller devs to register their home address and have that act as an intermediary to avoid just have their home address being public, while also having people be sure that there is a real and accurate contact address. On the other hand I would have assumed that was covered by standard business registration?
- Gud 2y agoThis should be a “so what” moment because I should be able to source my software from anywhere. But I can’t, and that’s the bigger problem.
- impish9208 2y agoDupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41872962 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41872962