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> At present the project is focused on mobile platforms, specifically Android and iOS, as they cover the vast majority of users and real-world use cases. (..) D

> At present the project is focused on mobile platforms, specifically Android and iOS, as they cover the vast majority of users and real-world use cases. (..) Desktop support is not currently within the project's scope. This is the equivalent of a "Do you guys not have phones??"[1] but on a way larger scale. At least where i live i am able to use the bare minimum of phones, even working with tech. The friction is increasing though, which worries me a lot, and day after day there is a new attempt to shove it down your throat if you want to be considered a member of society. Seeing that a lot of countries (including mine) are pushing for age verification, and the whole thing about Android blocking 'sideload', by the end of 2026 you won't be considered a human being without a government certified smartphone. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly10r6m_-n8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly10r6m_-n8

kulahan 1y ago
I do find it interesting that in an attempt to bring more people into modern society (via ability to access everything from an inexpensive smartphone), we're creating a stratification in society. My brother hates tech more than me, and only has an old flip phone. I'm always surprised by the random problems he runs into as a result. Unresponsive desktop sites that beg you to download apps are the worst.
- FridayoLeary 1y ago
  How is it that in todays day and age websites can be broken on desktops and favours smartphones? They are at best a compromised ux. Small screens and they are awkward to type on. Those are inherent limitations which are unlikely to change anytime soon. folding phones are a niche item and are likely to stay that way for the forseeable future. Tactile touchscreens will only mitigate the inherent drawbacks not solve them. The other solution is of course wearables like ar but not surprisingly people are stubbornly resisting buying them. I'm not sure what Apple and Meta were even thinking. What else is there? Projected holograms in 3d like in movies? I'm not yet ready for my entire world to turn blue.
- ACCount37 1y ago
  "Mandatory app" is an anti-accessibility anti-feature.
krzyk 1y ago
This is good I think because lack of verifications anywhere is good. So at least desktops will be free of it.
- simjnd 1y ago
  Worse: You just won't be able to use websites on desktop unless you pull out your phone and verify.
  - mindslight 1y ago
    But this will at least create a healthy pressure for competing options for users on desktops, likely based on novel secure protocols.
    - avra 1y ago
      Most of the times the user prioritizes more convenient options over privacy. "Pressure for competing options" will mean that options compete for the most convenient way, not most secure or most private.
      - mindslight 1y ago
        Sure, but the point is that the more convenient less-secure ways are going to be criminalized. Otherwise nobody would use the age verification app in the first place.
        raxxorraxor 1y ago
        Then the recommendation from this should be to become criminal.
  - BeFlatXIII 1y ago
    I hope the push for verification leads to the normies learning the ways of identity theft. The fun really ramps up once they figure out free money tricks.
bonoboTP 1y ago
Another recent news about mandated app use: Ryanair now (from November) requires using their app for the boarding pass, no more printouts from the desktop. Also, they refuse to show the QR code for the boarding pass in a mobile browser via the website, you must use their app. https://www.msn.com/en-ie/travel/news/ryanair-s-new-check-in-rules-as-physical-boarding-passes-to-be-scrapped/ar-AA1K0izL https://www.msn.com/en-ie/travel/news/ryanair-s-new-check-in...
- llimos 1y ago
  Big difference between a private company mandating app use, and a government
  - bonoboTP 1y ago
    I disagree. It's a tandem, and corporations and the government are increasingly welded together. Also, I'm not too worried about the airport usecase as we're already being tracked and surveilled and inspected there as much as possible. But it's another step to normalize and mandate phone and app use. The puzzle pieces are falling in place. Soon, AI could screen-capture your phone screen to detect suspicious activity, and track every tap you do, also taking pictures with the front-facing camera without you knowing, listening on the mic, etc. etc., connecting it all to your real identity. Because why not? If it's done step by step, nobody will care at all. Maybe that sounds pessimistic, but it looks like the end game and I see no principled political stance against it, nor any insurmountable technical hurdles.
    - card_zero 1y ago
      > increasingly welded together That's an insinuation with some vague truth to it, but not much. Budget airlines are not government departments, and competition between them isn't phony. "The sky is blue" "I feel that it is increasingly yellow"
      - bonoboTP 1y ago
        There's little competition pressure because consumers don't care. I guess the standard theory says that the buck ends there. If people are fine with it, it's fine.
b00ty4breakfast 1y ago
the point is to have everyone "collared" and traceable. The conspiracy guys all worry about getting micro-chipped but that's far too invasive and obvious for modern society. the new Control gives the illusion of endless opportunities and freedom while also being the very method of limiting that freedom. It is the leverage through which control is exerted. to quote Gilles Deleuze's Postscript on Societies of Control(1992): >The conception of a control mechanism, giving the position of any element within an open environment at any given instant (whether animal in a reserve or human in a corporation, as with an electronic collar), is not necessarily one of science fiction. Felix Guattari has imagined a city where one would be able to leave one's apartment, one's street, one's neighborhood, thanks to one's...electronic card that raises a given barrier; but the card could just as easily be rejected on a given day or between certain hours; what counts is not the barrier but the computer that tracks each person's position-licit or illicit... https://faculty.umb.edu/gary_zabel/Courses/Spinoza/Texts/Postscript%20on%20the%20Societies%20of%20Control.pdf https://faculty.umb.edu/gary_zabel/Courses/Spinoza/Texts/Pos...
- gyomu 1y ago
  It is insane to read Deleuze, Baudrillard, Debord, etc. in 2025. Just insanely prescient, and the perfect illustration that being able to describe and anticipate problems is nowhere near sufficient to solve them.
raxxorraxor 1y ago
Developers contributing to that project should be ashamed. I am sadly situated in Europe and the crap the EU pushes out recently with chat control, bad ID solutions and censorship doesn't match what democracies should expect. Not going to use the app of course. If that restricts me I will seek to route around this censorship and share with others. This crap has to be resisted. Stupid project, stupid design, stupid continent.
_w1tm 1y ago
Maybe off-topic but I remember when people were worried about services becoming digital and older users no longer being able to access them without a personal computer. Fast forward a few decades and now the old users are on desktop and we’re worried about services only being available for smartphones.
- 7bit 1y ago
  Are we the old people now?
GoblinSlayer 1y ago
>This is the equivalent of a "Do you guys not have phones??" Remotely related: https://ottawacitizen.com/news/manor-park-ottawa-sidewalk-reversal https://ottawacitizen.com/news/manor-park-ottawa-sidewalk-re... there are dozens of us, dozens.

kulahan 1y ago

I do find it interesting that in an attempt to bring more people into modern society (via ability to access everything from an inexpensive smartphone), we're creating a stratification in society. My brother hates tech more than me, and only has an old flip phone. I'm always surprised by the random problems he runs into as a result. Unresponsive desktop sites that beg you to download apps are the worst.

FridayoLeary 1y ago
How is it that in todays day and age websites can be broken on desktops and favours smartphones? They are at best a compromised ux. Small screens and they are awkward to type on. Those are inherent limitations which are unlikely to change anytime soon. folding phones are a niche item and are likely to stay that way for the forseeable future. Tactile touchscreens will only mitigate the inherent drawbacks not solve them. The other solution is of course wearables like ar but not surprisingly people are stubbornly resisting buying them. I'm not sure what Apple and Meta were even thinking. What else is there? Projected holograms in 3d like in movies? I'm not yet ready for my entire world to turn blue.
ACCount37 1y ago
"Mandatory app" is an anti-accessibility anti-feature.

krzyk 1y ago

This is good I think because lack of verifications anywhere is good. So at least desktops will be free of it.

simjnd 1y ago
Worse: You just won't be able to use websites on desktop unless you pull out your phone and verify.
- mindslight 1y ago
  But this will at least create a healthy pressure for competing options for users on desktops, likely based on novel secure protocols.
  - avra 1y ago
    Most of the times the user prioritizes more convenient options over privacy. "Pressure for competing options" will mean that options compete for the most convenient way, not most secure or most private.
    - mindslight 1y ago
      Sure, but the point is that the more convenient less-secure ways are going to be criminalized. Otherwise nobody would use the age verification app in the first place.
      - raxxorraxor 1y ago
        Then the recommendation from this should be to become criminal.
- BeFlatXIII 1y ago
  I hope the push for verification leads to the normies learning the ways of identity theft. The fun really ramps up once they figure out free money tricks.

bonoboTP 1y ago

Another recent news about mandated app use: Ryanair now (from November) requires using their app for the boarding pass, no more printouts from the desktop. Also, they refuse to show the QR code for the boarding pass in a mobile browser via the website, you must use their app. https://www.msn.com/en-ie/travel/news/ryanair-s-new-check-in-rules-as-physical-boarding-passes-to-be-scrapped/ar-AA1K0izL https://www.msn.com/en-ie/travel/news/ryanair-s-new-check-in...

llimos 1y ago
Big difference between a private company mandating app use, and a government
- bonoboTP 1y ago
  I disagree. It's a tandem, and corporations and the government are increasingly welded together. Also, I'm not too worried about the airport usecase as we're already being tracked and surveilled and inspected there as much as possible. But it's another step to normalize and mandate phone and app use. The puzzle pieces are falling in place. Soon, AI could screen-capture your phone screen to detect suspicious activity, and track every tap you do, also taking pictures with the front-facing camera without you knowing, listening on the mic, etc. etc., connecting it all to your real identity. Because why not? If it's done step by step, nobody will care at all. Maybe that sounds pessimistic, but it looks like the end game and I see no principled political stance against it, nor any insurmountable technical hurdles.
  - card_zero 1y ago
    > increasingly welded together That's an insinuation with some vague truth to it, but not much. Budget airlines are not government departments, and competition between them isn't phony. "The sky is blue" "I feel that it is increasingly yellow"
    - bonoboTP 1y ago
      There's little competition pressure because consumers don't care. I guess the standard theory says that the buck ends there. If people are fine with it, it's fine.

b00ty4breakfast 1y ago

the point is to have everyone "collared" and traceable. The conspiracy guys all worry about getting micro-chipped but that's far too invasive and obvious for modern society. the new Control gives the illusion of endless opportunities and freedom while also being the very method of limiting that freedom. It is the leverage through which control is exerted. to quote Gilles Deleuze's Postscript on Societies of Control(1992): >The conception of a control mechanism, giving the position of any element within an open environment at any given instant (whether animal in a reserve or human in a corporation, as with an electronic collar), is not necessarily one of science fiction. Felix Guattari has imagined a city where one would be able to leave one's apartment, one's street, one's neighborhood, thanks to one's...electronic card that raises a given barrier; but the card could just as easily be rejected on a given day or between certain hours; what counts is not the barrier but the computer that tracks each person's position-licit or illicit... https://faculty.umb.edu/gary_zabel/Courses/Spinoza/Texts/Postscript%20on%20the%20Societies%20of%20Control.pdf https://faculty.umb.edu/gary_zabel/Courses/Spinoza/Texts/Pos...

gyomu 1y ago
It is insane to read Deleuze, Baudrillard, Debord, etc. in 2025. Just insanely prescient, and the perfect illustration that being able to describe and anticipate problems is nowhere near sufficient to solve them.

raxxorraxor 1y ago

Developers contributing to that project should be ashamed. I am sadly situated in Europe and the crap the EU pushes out recently with chat control, bad ID solutions and censorship doesn't match what democracies should expect. Not going to use the app of course. If that restricts me I will seek to route around this censorship and share with others. This crap has to be resisted. Stupid project, stupid design, stupid continent.

_w1tm 1y ago

Maybe off-topic but I remember when people were worried about services becoming digital and older users no longer being able to access them without a personal computer. Fast forward a few decades and now the old users are on desktop and we’re worried about services only being available for smartphones.

7bit 1y ago
Are we the old people now?

GoblinSlayer 1y ago

>This is the equivalent of a "Do you guys not have phones??" Remotely related: https://ottawacitizen.com/news/manor-park-ottawa-sidewalk-reversal https://ottawacitizen.com/news/manor-park-ottawa-sidewalk-re... there are dozens of us, dozens.