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Yeah, if Google kills ReVanced, I may as well get an iPhone. What's the difference at this point. You can't even unlock the bootloader on most of the quality An

by blfr 1y ago

Yeah, if Google kills ReVanced, I may as well get an iPhone. What's the difference at this point. You can't even unlock the bootloader on most of the quality Android phones. However, the crusade against the word and concept of "sideloading" is really weird. Yeah, installing from the repo is normal, and all the windows-land "download an .exe/.msi to invoke an installer" ways that then may or may not update the app are unusual and apart from an ordered process of system management. The proper alternative to Google Play is F-Droid, not downloading/baking .apks.

pharrington 1y ago
Why is it weird? You install software on your computer. You install software from your app repository. You install software with your package manager. You install software on your server. You install software on the computers you administrate. "Sideload" was always the weird, Orwellian term. (editted to add repository and package manager points)
- blfr 1y ago
  It's weird because "sideloading" accurately captures that you're doing something ad hoc outside of the main channel. You install software with your package manager, from the app repository, and you sideload it with `curl | bash` or manually moving an .exe/.msi/.apk. This is a fine distinction. And it will happen and should happen because there are always gaps. Without a way to fill them, you're left with a subpar experience. And while many people are fine with it on their iPhones, I can't really imagine not having ReVanced apps, Molly, or a dozen other little fixes.
  - gr4vityWall 1y ago
    > "sideloading" accurately captures that you're doing something ad hoc outside of the main channel. Who gets to decide what the main channel is? For a lot of people here, F-Droid is their main way of installing programs on phones.
  - superkuh 1y ago
    It's not a fine distinction. It's orwellian propaganda. Installation is the normal thing that is the status quo. Having a locked down corporation controlled system that only lets you install things they approve should be called some new word. But the only thing coming to mind personally is "dumb" or "willeventuallybackfireonyoustallation".
- AJ007 1y ago
  This is what bothers me about the whole "App Store" stuff with the EU. This entire fight about Apple being required to allow third party "App Stores" -- how about simply the user can load whatever software they want to on the device which they are the owner of? The amount of legalism that's been brought in by both sides, Apple/Google and the regulators, layered in lies (we need to approve the software, register the developers, to protect the user from software), is divorced from the reality of the hardware-software relationship. This has led us down a path where everyone is debating the topics that Google, Apple, and revolving door regulators choose rather than the underlying reality. There is a simple solution to all of this: Google and Apple should no longer be allowed to operate any sort of "App Store" or software distribution channel.
  - kcplate 1y ago
    > There is a simple solution to all of this: Google and Apple should no longer be allowed to operate any sort of "App Store" or software distribution channel. “Simple” solutions can produce unintended outcomes. You want to take a device that is targeted for “everyone” and not just tech savvy people and provide no control or standard to what can be loaded on it? The very idea of it is horrifying to me. You have apparently never sat down on an elderly persons PC in the early ‘00s and tried to sort out all manner of shopping toolbars, coupon widgets, and crapware that has caused their pc to slow to a crawl. It’s literally bad enough with the poor performing apps in app stores but it could be so much worse without it No thanks.
    - jjani 1y ago
      Having to caveat it with "in the early '00s" already invalidates your thesis; it means we've managed to largely fix this issue on PC without resorting to giving away device ownership.
      - bartread 1y ago
        I don’t think it invalidates the argument at all. I think it’s more a reflection that people mostly use other devices, like phones and tablets, for tasks they might have used a PC for 20 years ago - at least outside an office environment. That’s not to say the PC experience hasn’t improved - certainly Windows is at least more secure - but that it’s not the only factor, and I don’t think it’s the biggest factor either. One data point for you: the last company I worked for, when I joined in 2017, already >50% of external users were accessing our service via mobile devices.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 1y ago
  On windows, you mostly download apps from websites and sideload them. And windows is by far the most common OS
- isaacremuant 1y ago
  Politician and corporations want you to not have ownership or control over your devices. Either for money or control, but they absolutely would love for things like Linux to not be possible or illegal so they can force you to watch ads and pay their next version of enshitified shit, not consume the wrong kind of news and absolutely not assemble in political opposition to their corruption. If you don't see the patterns of absolutely pathetic authoritianism, which most people cheered on during covid policies times, you're not going be very effective at opposing this crap.
93po 1y ago
revanced is killed on iOS too unfortunately and has been for a long while
- noisy_boy 1y ago
  Atleast you get some decent hardware if you have to give up the freedom anyway.
  - esseph 1y ago
    Doesn't matter if there's nothing to do with it
gdulli 1y ago
Apple? I'd never give my money to the organization that's responsible for bringing us to this place.
- itake 1y ago
  How are they responsible?
  - kleiba 1y ago
    I cannot speak for the grandparent, so here's my best guess what was meant: namely the introduction of a centally managed "app store" as the central/only way to install new software on your device, thereby taking control away from users?! Was the iPhone the first device to come with that concept?
    - blibble 1y ago
      carriers had similar stores for j2me apps on the original iphone the only "apps" you could have were websites, as apple hated the carrier approach
      - justsid 1y ago
        The “sweet solution” has long been debunked by the people who worked on the early iPhone OS software. The iPhone was always supposed to have apps, it just wasn’t ready yet. Heck, half the OS wasn’t ready either at launch or the MacWorld presentation.
    - CharlesW 1y ago
      > Was the iPhone the first device to come with that concept? Far from it. Before Apple, carriers and handset makers 100% controlled what you could install. "App stores" like Verizon's Get It Now, BREW, and Nokia’s operator portals existed, but they were fragmented, clunky, often exploitative, and comparatively laughable in scope and scale. Apple did what seemed impossible at the time, which was to persuade/cajole/force carriers and handset makers to give up their roles as gatekeepers. They created a single global marketplace with mostly-predictable rules and simple discovery, which finally allowed indie developers to reach users directly just as easily as global behemoths.
thrance 1y ago
Same here, being able to enjoy YouTube without ads is the only thing really blocking me from switching to ios. Silver lining is, maybe if using YouTube is made painful again it'll help me cure my last remaining internet addiction.
- 65 1y ago
  You can install iOS Safari ad blockers. AdGuard for example
  - blfr 1y ago
    ReVanced is so much more than an adblocker though. Yes, it blocks ads but it also skips sponsored segments and other chaff with a SponsorBlock integration. Then it fixes all the little UI annoyances across apps, for example letting you filter out low-view videos and live streams from your TikTok feed. It turns mass market apps into something that an HN user would make for themselves.
    - krull10 1y ago
      I’m all for keeping user freedom to install whatever they want, and wish it was easy to do so on my iPhone. I will point out though that if you pay for YouTube premium it has now incorporated the ability to skip in-video sponsored ads. I use this all the time now on my Apple TV via the YouTube app. It is actually pretty hypocritical they’re adding such tech to their apps while fighting so hard against people that want to block the ads they serve…
    - Fargren 1y ago
      You can get this experience in Android (without sideloading) using Firefox with the correct plugins. I don't have an iPhone so I don't know if the same is true there.
- Saline9515 1y ago
  Orion browser (from Kagi) and Brave block natively youtube adds on iphone.
ajsnigrutin 1y ago
> However, the crusade against the word and concept of "sideloading" is really weird. Yeah, installing from the repo is normal, and all the windows-land "download an .exe/.msi to invoke an installer" ways that then may or may not update the app are unusual and apart from an ordered process of system management. Wait, let me take out my word 97 CDs to read the "sideloading instructions" booklet. Oh wait, what was considered a normal install Same on mobile phone in symbian era. It's not "sideloading", it's a "normal install".
- leeoniya 1y ago
  > Wait, let me take out my word 97 CDs oh, those things you literally load from the side? :P /s
jacquesm 1y ago
It's not side loading. It is just installing and running. I swear all this 'for your benefit' crap is going to relegate all of our computing hardware to the status of dumb terminal before long. Note how the term 'side loading' is already weighted against you doing it, it is supposed to make you feel you're doing something that is borderline illegal even if it is still possible and that you are bypassing safeguards that would stop you from doing this stupid thing if you only took the proper route.
- wilsonnb3 1y ago
  It’s called that because you used to download the apks on a separate computer and then load them onto the phone, it has nothing to do with sounding illegal
  - ekianjo 1y ago
    You could always download apks directly from your phone...
    - jimjimwii 1y ago
      That's how I've always done it. Why would anyone do it any other way? Genuine question.
      - david_allison 1y ago
        Some devices don't have browsers, some are locked-down and only support one app store, or sideloading via adb, sometimes the UX is better (SideQuest for the Meta Quest).
        ekianjo 1y ago
        The large majority of Android devices have a browser by default.
    - dadoum 1y ago
fluidcruft 1y ago
Oh is ReVanced that YouTube-without-ads thing? I'm about to install it out of pure spite to reciprocate Google's hostility.
- nodja 1y ago
  It's much more than that. It's an app that patches apks and has a series of community patches for specific apps. For youtube it's the usual ad blocking and sponsorblock, etc. but it can apply patches for all apps, one of the universal patches is changing the package name, this allows you to install 2 of the same app. I use this on youtube and tiktok so I have both accounts logged in at the same time, each logged in to a separate app.
  - horseradish7k 1y ago
    when lucky patcher did this, google flagged it as malware with play protect to the point where they had to make a separate installer to randomize the package name
  - fluidcruft 1y ago
    FYI if you only need two instances of an app, you can use the built-in Work Profile. I wish Android supported more profiles (for even better compartmentalization, like it would be nice to have a similar isolated profile for banking and such). But as-is Work Profile was a pretty great discovery on Android (for me) a year or so ago and a feature I think more people should play with. There's an app called Shelter that builds off the Work profile plumbing to add support for even more profiles. I forget why I switched to using Work profile directly... I think I just wanted to see how the built-in stuff worked. There's other stuff about the Work Profile that I don't remember Shelter providing (with Work Profile you end up with copies of the app with briefcase icon to tell them apart and separate intent handlers, I remember liking that but I don't remember if Shelter supported that sort of thing) https://f-droid.org/packages/net.typeblog.shelter/ https://f-droid.org/packages/net.typeblog.shelter/
akarki15 1y ago
[flagged]
- laserlight 1y ago
  Correction: free drugs are over.
- rs186 1y ago
  ReVanced does more than ad blocking, e.g. SponsorBlock and others. And as the parent already said, "I may as well get an iPhone".
  - akarki15 1y ago
    Well go ahead- g/android isn't stopping anyone from moving to iPhone... I myself use iphone cause I like the hardware quality (over android). I pay for youtube premium cause I like the service (over apple music for example)... You can bellow as much as you want that you are losing a "free service" but nothin is free buddy at the end of the day. You get what you paid and youtube premium is one of the few services I find worth paying... Not worth it, you say? Feel free to bounce to a zillion other video platforms - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_video_platforms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_video_platforms .
    - rs186 1y ago
      I don't think anyone is debating the morality of blocking the ads. People here care about the ability to even attempt to block ads.
- 6329263929 1y ago
  Why would anybody give this criminal enterprise their money?
  - surajrmal 1y ago
    Why do you use YouTube if you do not find it ethical?
MiddleEndian 1y ago
>The proper alternative to Google Play is F-Droid, not downloading/baking .apks. Disagree entirely. Google Play refused to download some app on my phone because it thought the specs weren't good enough for whatever reason even though it worked fine on my previous weaker phone. I found the APK, I downloaded it, and just installed it. Why would I want to first download some other middle-man to deal with any of this shit? Ideally there would be no "store" at all on my phone. Editing to add this from the front page of HN right now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45082595 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45082595 (F-Droid site certificate expired)
- Telaneo 1y ago
  I'd probably still want a common repo to get software from, for the same reason we use package managers and repos on Linux. Not to mention that the app store experience is more friendly to the newbies out there. But the 'just download an apk/exe/.app and run it' should still exist as a lowest common denominator. Not to mention that the existence of that possibility will hopefully keep stores in check and not become overtly hostile, since if they do, users can just say 'fuck it' and download their software piecemeal.
  - MiddleEndian 1y ago
    In my experience on Linux, I like having a repo for terminal programs, but anything with a GUI I'd rather just install and manage myself.
    - Telaneo 1y ago
      Flathub's proven to be a really nice repo of GUI apps for me at least, so I don't see much of a reason to draw that line.
- joquarky 1y ago
  I wish that standard software development practices included encouraging the implementation of an "I know what I'm doing, stop coddling me" option.
blehn 1y ago
Not that Google needs any more cash, but ReVanced has to be the absolute worst defense for maintaining openness on Android. As in, you could have cited the thousands of legitimate apps that have nothing to do with circumventing a pretty reasonable subscription (compared to other media subscriptions out there) for Google's own app.
- wpm 1y ago
  Not paying for Premium is pretty cheesy but Revanced also fixes a number of hostile UX changes to YouTube no subscription let you escape normally. It also allows you to patch other apps to make them work the way you want.
  - moradiyashar8 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - _nub3 1y ago
      yeah, i'm not clicking that.
- xethos 1y ago
  The deal with Youtube was always presented as "You watch a couple ads, we show you a couple videos" Google has dramatically altered that deal, and now shows much longer, less-likely-to-be-skippable ads, with much higher frequency. Calling it "a prety reasonable subscription" is only reasonable if we forget that this wasn't the deal originally offered Furthermore, this is a massive corporation closing up a project that got it's start by selling itself to geeks as Open. It is Google's OS, and it is Google's app, but closing up the Open project to advantage their own app sure as hell feels like poor form
  - lucyjojo 1y ago
    then don't watch youtube...
wolfi1 1y ago
f-droid would also require google approved devs
wand3r 1y ago
> You can't even unlock the bootloader on most of the quality Android phones. Can you not do this on Samsung phones? I was considering buying a used s22 ultra as an iPhone user to explore more freedom and pirate apps, etc. Is andoid really this locked down now? I have heard that quite a bit, but can't you sideload or install any apps you want on Android? Why do you need to unlock the bootloader?
- orbital-decay 1y ago
  Not anymore, since OneUI 8. And before that, by unlocking the bootloader you were tripping Samsung's e-fuse, permanently marking the hardware as unlocked. That's why nobody ever bothered making custom firmware builds for Samsung devices. Sideloading doesn't require rooting the device.
  - joquarky 1y ago
    Yet.
    - moradiyashar8 1y ago
      [dead]
- queenkjuul 1y ago
  Unlocking the bootloader is step 1 in rooting the device (usually) and is absolutely required to install an alternate OS (like grapheneOS) And yeah majority of phones simply won't let you do that anymore
JohnTHaller 1y ago
There's the fact that on iPhone you have to use Safari's rendering engine and every 'browser' just sits atop it.
- joquarky 1y ago
  They're intentionally fumbling on progressive web apps for the same reason.
necovek 1y ago
With phones becoming our main computing platform, I wonder why do we look at it any different from our personal computers? On my computer, I can choose to containerize applications I run with something like docker, flatpak or snaps; run them in a VM, under a separate user, in a chroot... or, not! I can get them from the Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora/... archive or... not! Or I might compile it from source and run it directly or... not! Based on source of the app I decide how much I trust it and thus decide on the encapsulation strategy for it (sometimes, none). Yes, I understand having full control of your system has some minor downsides (you can mess things up more easily), but you can usually do that anyway (just fill up your phone storage with photos and see how your phone behaves).
- baranul 1y ago
  > With phones becoming our main computing platform, I wonder why do we look at it any different from our personal computers? Especially after people paying so much money for the devices, it's ludicrous that they are not allowed to make their own decisions and install what they want. Ownership, user rights, and privacy have been kicked in the face. If you can not install whatever software that you want, then people should be signing only rental agreements. It is also more the reason to push Linux smartphones[1]. Android is not doing anything special, that people could not get or create for Linux phones. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_mobile_phones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_mobile_pho...
  - jama211 1y ago
    I mean, personally I don’t feel like my user rights are being kicked in the face just because my smartphone is more locked down than I’d like. I’m all for more power to the user, but that seems a little strong.
    - _factor 1y ago
      Are you serious? While not as powerful as root access, your user rights are almost completely gone. You buy a $1,000 phone and $1,000 on a service plan which is not an insignificant amount of money for many, then take away every semblance of ownership. Right to repair? Warranty void. Want to run language models Google doesn’t approve? Not anymore. Want to run your favorite VPN? Too secure, unavailable. Want to audit the security and scan the device you carry everywhere and stores your life’s data? Unapproved. Want to compete with anything that dents Google’s profits? Papers please developer. Just because your nose is already caved in and you’re dazed from the repeated blows, doesn’t make it less of a face kick. It’s more of a curb stomp.
nosioptar 1y ago
Oddly enough, Google Pixels are easy to unlock the bootloader, provided you didnt get the verizon version. Dont get me wrong, im not accusing Pixels of being "quality". In my experience, they're not quite as good as a free phone from a MetroPCS store.
- wyclif 1y ago
  I was with you on "easy to unlock", but the "not quite as good as a free phone from a MetroPCS store" is just a laughable, probably troll take.
  - nosioptar 1y ago
    It's not a troll take. My old shit Alcatel still works. Every pixel I've had has needed repairs. As for calling me a troll, fuck right off, asshole.
    - wyclif 1y ago
      I think you need a hug.
poulpy123 1y ago
Android phones still have a huge price advantage on iphone: the least expensive iphone is 800€, the least expensive Google pixel is 550€ (which is much higher that 2 years ago), and the least expensive Samsung is 300€.
EchoReflection 1y ago
Apple and Google are just two heads of the same surveillance-state hydra: https://web.archive.org/web/20201108102009/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-20/apple-google-worked-as-one-company-on-search-deal-u-s-says https://web.archive.org/web/20201108102009/https://www.bloom...

by blfr 1y ago

pharrington 1y ago

Why is it weird? You install software on your computer. You install software from your app repository. You install software with your package manager. You install software on your server. You install software on the computers you administrate. "Sideload" was always the weird, Orwellian term. (editted to add repository and package manager points)

blfr 1y ago
It's weird because "sideloading" accurately captures that you're doing something ad hoc outside of the main channel. You install software with your package manager, from the app repository, and you sideload it with `curl | bash` or manually moving an .exe/.msi/.apk. This is a fine distinction. And it will happen and should happen because there are always gaps. Without a way to fill them, you're left with a subpar experience. And while many people are fine with it on their iPhones, I can't really imagine not having ReVanced apps, Molly, or a dozen other little fixes.
- gr4vityWall 1y ago
  > "sideloading" accurately captures that you're doing something ad hoc outside of the main channel. Who gets to decide what the main channel is? For a lot of people here, F-Droid is their main way of installing programs on phones.
- superkuh 1y ago
  It's not a fine distinction. It's orwellian propaganda. Installation is the normal thing that is the status quo. Having a locked down corporation controlled system that only lets you install things they approve should be called some new word. But the only thing coming to mind personally is "dumb" or "willeventuallybackfireonyoustallation".
AJ007 1y ago
This is what bothers me about the whole "App Store" stuff with the EU. This entire fight about Apple being required to allow third party "App Stores" -- how about simply the user can load whatever software they want to on the device which they are the owner of? The amount of legalism that's been brought in by both sides, Apple/Google and the regulators, layered in lies (we need to approve the software, register the developers, to protect the user from software), is divorced from the reality of the hardware-software relationship. This has led us down a path where everyone is debating the topics that Google, Apple, and revolving door regulators choose rather than the underlying reality. There is a simple solution to all of this: Google and Apple should no longer be allowed to operate any sort of "App Store" or software distribution channel.
- kcplate 1y ago
  > There is a simple solution to all of this: Google and Apple should no longer be allowed to operate any sort of "App Store" or software distribution channel. “Simple” solutions can produce unintended outcomes. You want to take a device that is targeted for “everyone” and not just tech savvy people and provide no control or standard to what can be loaded on it? The very idea of it is horrifying to me. You have apparently never sat down on an elderly persons PC in the early ‘00s and tried to sort out all manner of shopping toolbars, coupon widgets, and crapware that has caused their pc to slow to a crawl. It’s literally bad enough with the poor performing apps in app stores but it could be so much worse without it No thanks.
  - jjani 1y ago
    Having to caveat it with "in the early '00s" already invalidates your thesis; it means we've managed to largely fix this issue on PC without resorting to giving away device ownership.
    - bartread 1y ago
      I don’t think it invalidates the argument at all. I think it’s more a reflection that people mostly use other devices, like phones and tablets, for tasks they might have used a PC for 20 years ago - at least outside an office environment. That’s not to say the PC experience hasn’t improved - certainly Windows is at least more secure - but that it’s not the only factor, and I don’t think it’s the biggest factor either. One data point for you: the last company I worked for, when I joined in 2017, already >50% of external users were accessing our service via mobile devices.
Fire-Dragon-DoL 1y ago
On windows, you mostly download apps from websites and sideload them. And windows is by far the most common OS
isaacremuant 1y ago
Politician and corporations want you to not have ownership or control over your devices. Either for money or control, but they absolutely would love for things like Linux to not be possible or illegal so they can force you to watch ads and pay their next version of enshitified shit, not consume the wrong kind of news and absolutely not assemble in political opposition to their corruption. If you don't see the patterns of absolutely pathetic authoritianism, which most people cheered on during covid policies times, you're not going be very effective at opposing this crap.

93po 1y ago

revanced is killed on iOS too unfortunately and has been for a long while

noisy_boy 1y ago
Atleast you get some decent hardware if you have to give up the freedom anyway.
- esseph 1y ago
  Doesn't matter if there's nothing to do with it

gdulli 1y ago

Apple? I'd never give my money to the organization that's responsible for bringing us to this place.

itake 1y ago
How are they responsible?
- kleiba 1y ago
  I cannot speak for the grandparent, so here's my best guess what was meant: namely the introduction of a centally managed "app store" as the central/only way to install new software on your device, thereby taking control away from users?! Was the iPhone the first device to come with that concept?
  - blibble 1y ago
    carriers had similar stores for j2me apps on the original iphone the only "apps" you could have were websites, as apple hated the carrier approach
    - justsid 1y ago
      The “sweet solution” has long been debunked by the people who worked on the early iPhone OS software. The iPhone was always supposed to have apps, it just wasn’t ready yet. Heck, half the OS wasn’t ready either at launch or the MacWorld presentation.
  - CharlesW 1y ago
    > Was the iPhone the first device to come with that concept? Far from it. Before Apple, carriers and handset makers 100% controlled what you could install. "App stores" like Verizon's Get It Now, BREW, and Nokia’s operator portals existed, but they were fragmented, clunky, often exploitative, and comparatively laughable in scope and scale. Apple did what seemed impossible at the time, which was to persuade/cajole/force carriers and handset makers to give up their roles as gatekeepers. They created a single global marketplace with mostly-predictable rules and simple discovery, which finally allowed indie developers to reach users directly just as easily as global behemoths.

thrance 1y ago

Same here, being able to enjoy YouTube without ads is the only thing really blocking me from switching to ios. Silver lining is, maybe if using YouTube is made painful again it'll help me cure my last remaining internet addiction.

65 1y ago
You can install iOS Safari ad blockers. AdGuard for example
- blfr 1y ago
  ReVanced is so much more than an adblocker though. Yes, it blocks ads but it also skips sponsored segments and other chaff with a SponsorBlock integration. Then it fixes all the little UI annoyances across apps, for example letting you filter out low-view videos and live streams from your TikTok feed. It turns mass market apps into something that an HN user would make for themselves.
  - krull10 1y ago
    I’m all for keeping user freedom to install whatever they want, and wish it was easy to do so on my iPhone. I will point out though that if you pay for YouTube premium it has now incorporated the ability to skip in-video sponsored ads. I use this all the time now on my Apple TV via the YouTube app. It is actually pretty hypocritical they’re adding such tech to their apps while fighting so hard against people that want to block the ads they serve…
  - Fargren 1y ago
    You can get this experience in Android (without sideloading) using Firefox with the correct plugins. I don't have an iPhone so I don't know if the same is true there.
Saline9515 1y ago
Orion browser (from Kagi) and Brave block natively youtube adds on iphone.

ajsnigrutin 1y ago

> However, the crusade against the word and concept of "sideloading" is really weird. Yeah, installing from the repo is normal, and all the windows-land "download an .exe/.msi to invoke an installer" ways that then may or may not update the app are unusual and apart from an ordered process of system management. Wait, let me take out my word 97 CDs to read the "sideloading instructions" booklet. Oh wait, what was considered a normal install Same on mobile phone in symbian era. It's not "sideloading", it's a "normal install".

leeoniya 1y ago
> Wait, let me take out my word 97 CDs oh, those things you literally load from the side? :P /s

jacquesm 1y ago

It's not side loading. It is just installing and running. I swear all this 'for your benefit' crap is going to relegate all of our computing hardware to the status of dumb terminal before long. Note how the term 'side loading' is already weighted against you doing it, it is supposed to make you feel you're doing something that is borderline illegal even if it is still possible and that you are bypassing safeguards that would stop you from doing this stupid thing if you only took the proper route.

wilsonnb3 1y ago
It’s called that because you used to download the apks on a separate computer and then load them onto the phone, it has nothing to do with sounding illegal
- ekianjo 1y ago
  You could always download apks directly from your phone...
  - jimjimwii 1y ago
    That's how I've always done it. Why would anyone do it any other way? Genuine question.
    - david_allison 1y ago
      Some devices don't have browsers, some are locked-down and only support one app store, or sideloading via adb, sometimes the UX is better (SideQuest for the Meta Quest).
      - ekianjo 1y ago
        The large majority of Android devices have a browser by default.
  - dadoum 1y ago

fluidcruft 1y ago

Oh is ReVanced that YouTube-without-ads thing? I'm about to install it out of pure spite to reciprocate Google's hostility.

nodja 1y ago
It's much more than that. It's an app that patches apks and has a series of community patches for specific apps. For youtube it's the usual ad blocking and sponsorblock, etc. but it can apply patches for all apps, one of the universal patches is changing the package name, this allows you to install 2 of the same app. I use this on youtube and tiktok so I have both accounts logged in at the same time, each logged in to a separate app.
- horseradish7k 1y ago
  when lucky patcher did this, google flagged it as malware with play protect to the point where they had to make a separate installer to randomize the package name
- fluidcruft 1y ago
  FYI if you only need two instances of an app, you can use the built-in Work Profile. I wish Android supported more profiles (for even better compartmentalization, like it would be nice to have a similar isolated profile for banking and such). But as-is Work Profile was a pretty great discovery on Android (for me) a year or so ago and a feature I think more people should play with. There's an app called Shelter that builds off the Work profile plumbing to add support for even more profiles. I forget why I switched to using Work profile directly... I think I just wanted to see how the built-in stuff worked. There's other stuff about the Work Profile that I don't remember Shelter providing (with Work Profile you end up with copies of the app with briefcase icon to tell them apart and separate intent handlers, I remember liking that but I don't remember if Shelter supported that sort of thing) https://f-droid.org/packages/net.typeblog.shelter/ https://f-droid.org/packages/net.typeblog.shelter/

akarki15 1y ago

[flagged]

laserlight 1y ago
Correction: free drugs are over.
rs186 1y ago
ReVanced does more than ad blocking, e.g. SponsorBlock and others. And as the parent already said, "I may as well get an iPhone".
- akarki15 1y ago
  Well go ahead- g/android isn't stopping anyone from moving to iPhone... I myself use iphone cause I like the hardware quality (over android). I pay for youtube premium cause I like the service (over apple music for example)... You can bellow as much as you want that you are losing a "free service" but nothin is free buddy at the end of the day. You get what you paid and youtube premium is one of the few services I find worth paying... Not worth it, you say? Feel free to bounce to a zillion other video platforms - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_video_platforms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_video_platforms .
  - rs186 1y ago
    I don't think anyone is debating the morality of blocking the ads. People here care about the ability to even attempt to block ads.
6329263929 1y ago
Why would anybody give this criminal enterprise their money?
- surajrmal 1y ago
  Why do you use YouTube if you do not find it ethical?

MiddleEndian 1y ago

>The proper alternative to Google Play is F-Droid, not downloading/baking .apks. Disagree entirely. Google Play refused to download some app on my phone because it thought the specs weren't good enough for whatever reason even though it worked fine on my previous weaker phone. I found the APK, I downloaded it, and just installed it. Why would I want to first download some other middle-man to deal with any of this shit? Ideally there would be no "store" at all on my phone. Editing to add this from the front page of HN right now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45082595 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45082595 (F-Droid site certificate expired)

Telaneo 1y ago
I'd probably still want a common repo to get software from, for the same reason we use package managers and repos on Linux. Not to mention that the app store experience is more friendly to the newbies out there. But the 'just download an apk/exe/.app and run it' should still exist as a lowest common denominator. Not to mention that the existence of that possibility will hopefully keep stores in check and not become overtly hostile, since if they do, users can just say 'fuck it' and download their software piecemeal.
- MiddleEndian 1y ago
  In my experience on Linux, I like having a repo for terminal programs, but anything with a GUI I'd rather just install and manage myself.
  - Telaneo 1y ago
    Flathub's proven to be a really nice repo of GUI apps for me at least, so I don't see much of a reason to draw that line.
joquarky 1y ago
I wish that standard software development practices included encouraging the implementation of an "I know what I'm doing, stop coddling me" option.

blehn 1y ago

Not that Google needs any more cash, but ReVanced has to be the absolute worst defense for maintaining openness on Android. As in, you could have cited the thousands of legitimate apps that have nothing to do with circumventing a pretty reasonable subscription (compared to other media subscriptions out there) for Google's own app.

wpm 1y ago
Not paying for Premium is pretty cheesy but Revanced also fixes a number of hostile UX changes to YouTube no subscription let you escape normally. It also allows you to patch other apps to make them work the way you want.
- moradiyashar8 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - _nub3 1y ago
    yeah, i'm not clicking that.
xethos 1y ago
The deal with Youtube was always presented as "You watch a couple ads, we show you a couple videos" Google has dramatically altered that deal, and now shows much longer, less-likely-to-be-skippable ads, with much higher frequency. Calling it "a prety reasonable subscription" is only reasonable if we forget that this wasn't the deal originally offered Furthermore, this is a massive corporation closing up a project that got it's start by selling itself to geeks as Open. It is Google's OS, and it is Google's app, but closing up the Open project to advantage their own app sure as hell feels like poor form
- lucyjojo 1y ago
  then don't watch youtube...

wolfi1 1y ago

f-droid would also require google approved devs

wand3r 1y ago

> You can't even unlock the bootloader on most of the quality Android phones. Can you not do this on Samsung phones? I was considering buying a used s22 ultra as an iPhone user to explore more freedom and pirate apps, etc. Is andoid really this locked down now? I have heard that quite a bit, but can't you sideload or install any apps you want on Android? Why do you need to unlock the bootloader?

orbital-decay 1y ago
Not anymore, since OneUI 8. And before that, by unlocking the bootloader you were tripping Samsung's e-fuse, permanently marking the hardware as unlocked. That's why nobody ever bothered making custom firmware builds for Samsung devices. Sideloading doesn't require rooting the device.
- joquarky 1y ago
  Yet.
  - moradiyashar8 1y ago
    [dead]
queenkjuul 1y ago
Unlocking the bootloader is step 1 in rooting the device (usually) and is absolutely required to install an alternate OS (like grapheneOS) And yeah majority of phones simply won't let you do that anymore

JohnTHaller 1y ago

There's the fact that on iPhone you have to use Safari's rendering engine and every 'browser' just sits atop it.

joquarky 1y ago
They're intentionally fumbling on progressive web apps for the same reason.

necovek 1y ago

With phones becoming our main computing platform, I wonder why do we look at it any different from our personal computers? On my computer, I can choose to containerize applications I run with something like docker, flatpak or snaps; run them in a VM, under a separate user, in a chroot... or, not! I can get them from the Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora/... archive or... not! Or I might compile it from source and run it directly or... not! Based on source of the app I decide how much I trust it and thus decide on the encapsulation strategy for it (sometimes, none). Yes, I understand having full control of your system has some minor downsides (you can mess things up more easily), but you can usually do that anyway (just fill up your phone storage with photos and see how your phone behaves).

baranul 1y ago
> With phones becoming our main computing platform, I wonder why do we look at it any different from our personal computers? Especially after people paying so much money for the devices, it's ludicrous that they are not allowed to make their own decisions and install what they want. Ownership, user rights, and privacy have been kicked in the face. If you can not install whatever software that you want, then people should be signing only rental agreements. It is also more the reason to push Linux smartphones[1]. Android is not doing anything special, that people could not get or create for Linux phones. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_mobile_phones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_mobile_pho...
- jama211 1y ago
  I mean, personally I don’t feel like my user rights are being kicked in the face just because my smartphone is more locked down than I’d like. I’m all for more power to the user, but that seems a little strong.
  - _factor 1y ago
    Are you serious? While not as powerful as root access, your user rights are almost completely gone. You buy a $1,000 phone and $1,000 on a service plan which is not an insignificant amount of money for many, then take away every semblance of ownership. Right to repair? Warranty void. Want to run language models Google doesn’t approve? Not anymore. Want to run your favorite VPN? Too secure, unavailable. Want to audit the security and scan the device you carry everywhere and stores your life’s data? Unapproved. Want to compete with anything that dents Google’s profits? Papers please developer. Just because your nose is already caved in and you’re dazed from the repeated blows, doesn’t make it less of a face kick. It’s more of a curb stomp.

nosioptar 1y ago

Oddly enough, Google Pixels are easy to unlock the bootloader, provided you didnt get the verizon version. Dont get me wrong, im not accusing Pixels of being "quality". In my experience, they're not quite as good as a free phone from a MetroPCS store.

wyclif 1y ago
I was with you on "easy to unlock", but the "not quite as good as a free phone from a MetroPCS store" is just a laughable, probably troll take.
- nosioptar 1y ago
  It's not a troll take. My old shit Alcatel still works. Every pixel I've had has needed repairs. As for calling me a troll, fuck right off, asshole.
  - wyclif 1y ago
    I think you need a hug.

poulpy123 1y ago

Android phones still have a huge price advantage on iphone: the least expensive iphone is 800€, the least expensive Google pixel is 550€ (which is much higher that 2 years ago), and the least expensive Samsung is 300€.

EchoReflection 1y ago

Apple and Google are just two heads of the same surveillance-state hydra: https://web.archive.org/web/20201108102009/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-20/apple-google-worked-as-one-company-on-search-deal-u-s-says https://web.archive.org/web/20201108102009/https://www.bloom...