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I am a Google Apps paying customer, I've always liked their products (heck, I even have a Google+ account) and I've always defended them, but their moves are br

I am a Google Apps paying customer, I've always liked their products (heck, I even have a Google+ account) and I've always defended them, but their moves are breaking the camel's back. Just today I received a message from Google Hangouts on my Android, asking me if I want Hangouts to manage my SMS messages. The 2 available answers were: [Maybe Later] [Yes, I'm In] For everything they ask these days, those are the only 2 available answers. And you just know that if you won't accept willingly, they'll just shove it down your throat sooner or later. Right now my trust in them is being eroded and fast. I'm already thinking of completely deleting my entire Google account and switching to alternatives. Google, if you're listening to this, just stop it.

graeme 13y ago
Feels like a clingy friend. It seems like Google doesn't see the difference between wanting to be with them "sometimes" vs. "all the time, for all the things".
eonil 13y ago
You can't delete the last Google account from an Android device.
- aestra 13y ago
  This might have been true at one point (I know it was) but my phone didn't have my Google account on it for a few days. I could use it, except I couldn't sync my contacts or presumably use the play store. It came on but not with any accounts attached.
  - elxx 13y ago
    Was this when you initially got the phone or did you set it up and delete the account later on? Last I tried you can set up the phone and use it with no Google account, but once you add one you can't remove it without resetting to factory defaults.
    - eonil 13y ago
      I was forget that factory reset method. That's the only way to delete the last Google account.
    - aestra 13y ago
      It came that way from the store. As far as I know though the previous versions of android didn't function without a Google account.
- dmxt 13y ago
  You can. Well at least I could delete all accounts on phone.
- dingaling 13y ago
  > You can't delete the last Google account from an Android device. The trick I used to 'liberate' people who were fed-up with the Google sync was to change the account password from a PC using the web interface when the phone was turned-off. Then boot the phone and the account sync will error-out; at this point you should be able to delete the account from the phone.
wubbfindel 13y ago
Yes, I thought that was an interesting selection of choices. Personally, I went with "Yes", to see what the service is like, after first checking that I could back-out later if I wanted. But it did make me think; what sort of response would you get from a girl if you asked her out for a date - but only allowed her to answer "yes" or "maybe"? Probably something resembling "never" :)
- Silhouette 13y ago
  But it did make me think; what sort of response would you get from a girl if you asked her out for a date - but only allowed her to answer "yes" or "maybe"? I imagine the eventual response would be a legally enforceable restraining order and/or a harassment lawsuit, and if you continued to hassle her after that, it would be jail time. Someone at Google might want to consider how poorly unwanted intrusions into people's lives are generally regarded in other contexts, and therefore how likely this approach is to work a long-term business strategy. After all, no-one has to do anything as dramatic as filing suit or calling the police to remove Google from their lives.
- mkramlich 13y ago
  Technically there are no hard/permanent Yes or No answers in human relationships. Only "Yes for now, I think" and "No for now, I think". Both positions can change later or be revisited.
mikevm 13y ago
Google is playing a war of attrition by using these annoying messages. They've been doing this for ages on YouTube by trying to force people into using their real names. Fuck this.
Kequc 13y ago
So you're using an Android phone and the Android app that used to handle your SMS messages is being replaced by their new messaging app. This is a problem? Why?
- hrkristian 13y ago
  I never truly understood why Google shipped 4.4 with two SMS apps. Hangouts is cool, it lacks some features of the old SMS app like notification bar options. That's annoying, features shouldn't be stripped like that.
- DrJokepu 13y ago
  Surely it's not difficult to imagine why some people would feel uncomfortable with a social network managing their text messages? I know I would.
- rtpg 13y ago
  the google apps aren't entirely linked to Android a priori. In practice it's always bundled, but they can be seperate. The Messaging app has always dealt with SMSs, Hangouts replaced the google talk app, which never did SMS integration because it was supposed to be a chat client for google's network. The strategy's changed, and so there's this transition period.
- pornel 13y ago
  Yes, because it tries to nudge me towards using Google+ identity for messaging. Usually I wouldn't mind unified application, but I've lost trust in Google. I expect them to use dirty tricks to make me accidentally send Google+ messages instead of SMS.
dc2k08 13y ago
Highjacking top-comment to link mirrors: http://rorr.im/reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1qtk69/ http://rorr.im/reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1qtk69/ http://web.archive.org/web/20131114164356/http://www.zdnet.com/forced-google-plus-integration-on-youtube-backfires-petition-hits-112000-7000023196/ http://web.archive.org/web/20131114164356/http://www.zdnet.c...
ams6110 13y ago
For me, personally, if Google now wants to require a G+ profile and real name to post comments on YouTube, I don't care. They can find out the hard way whether this is a good idea or not. But lots of forums (from the original "Joel on Software" and many others) have encouraged use of real names as a way to keep things civil. Same reason newspapers require "letters to the editor" to be signed. And YouTube comments could stand a little cleansing. All that said, their "one account for all of Google" thing is really a PITA. I have several Google accounts that I use for entirely different purposes. One is for a project at work. One is for a non-profit that I help manage. One is my personal gmail. I don't want to mingle those, and I want a way to tell Google to stop asking me to do it. For now I try to remember to launch a new incognito/private browser session any time I access these services. At this point I'm NOT going to use Google services for any new projects/organizational purposes, and I am on the lookout for alternatives that provide what I need (mainly online docs, email, and listserv-like email groups) without all the annoyances.
- jessor 13y ago
  Use Chrome's multi-user feature for the different accounts. I manage around 10 different ones (private, youtube, nonprofits, others) like this with ease.
- judk 13y ago
  Joel and newspapers make no effort to verify your name. It is trivial to spoof. Integrated Google identity is harder to spoof if you use real id in any other part of the systen

graeme 13y ago

Feels like a clingy friend. It seems like Google doesn't see the difference between wanting to be with them "sometimes" vs. "all the time, for all the things".

eonil 13y ago

You can't delete the last Google account from an Android device.

aestra 13y ago
This might have been true at one point (I know it was) but my phone didn't have my Google account on it for a few days. I could use it, except I couldn't sync my contacts or presumably use the play store. It came on but not with any accounts attached.
- elxx 13y ago
  Was this when you initially got the phone or did you set it up and delete the account later on? Last I tried you can set up the phone and use it with no Google account, but once you add one you can't remove it without resetting to factory defaults.
  - eonil 13y ago
    I was forget that factory reset method. That's the only way to delete the last Google account.
  - aestra 13y ago
    It came that way from the store. As far as I know though the previous versions of android didn't function without a Google account.
dmxt 13y ago
You can. Well at least I could delete all accounts on phone.
dingaling 13y ago
> You can't delete the last Google account from an Android device. The trick I used to 'liberate' people who were fed-up with the Google sync was to change the account password from a PC using the web interface when the phone was turned-off. Then boot the phone and the account sync will error-out; at this point you should be able to delete the account from the phone.

wubbfindel 13y ago

Yes, I thought that was an interesting selection of choices. Personally, I went with "Yes", to see what the service is like, after first checking that I could back-out later if I wanted. But it did make me think; what sort of response would you get from a girl if you asked her out for a date - but only allowed her to answer "yes" or "maybe"? Probably something resembling "never" :)

Silhouette 13y ago
But it did make me think; what sort of response would you get from a girl if you asked her out for a date - but only allowed her to answer "yes" or "maybe"? I imagine the eventual response would be a legally enforceable restraining order and/or a harassment lawsuit, and if you continued to hassle her after that, it would be jail time. Someone at Google might want to consider how poorly unwanted intrusions into people's lives are generally regarded in other contexts, and therefore how likely this approach is to work a long-term business strategy. After all, no-one has to do anything as dramatic as filing suit or calling the police to remove Google from their lives.
mkramlich 13y ago
Technically there are no hard/permanent Yes or No answers in human relationships. Only "Yes for now, I think" and "No for now, I think". Both positions can change later or be revisited.

mikevm 13y ago

Google is playing a war of attrition by using these annoying messages. They've been doing this for ages on YouTube by trying to force people into using their real names. Fuck this.

Kequc 13y ago

So you're using an Android phone and the Android app that used to handle your SMS messages is being replaced by their new messaging app. This is a problem? Why?

hrkristian 13y ago
I never truly understood why Google shipped 4.4 with two SMS apps. Hangouts is cool, it lacks some features of the old SMS app like notification bar options. That's annoying, features shouldn't be stripped like that.
DrJokepu 13y ago
Surely it's not difficult to imagine why some people would feel uncomfortable with a social network managing their text messages? I know I would.
rtpg 13y ago
the google apps aren't entirely linked to Android a priori. In practice it's always bundled, but they can be seperate. The Messaging app has always dealt with SMSs, Hangouts replaced the google talk app, which never did SMS integration because it was supposed to be a chat client for google's network. The strategy's changed, and so there's this transition period.
pornel 13y ago
Yes, because it tries to nudge me towards using Google+ identity for messaging. Usually I wouldn't mind unified application, but I've lost trust in Google. I expect them to use dirty tricks to make me accidentally send Google+ messages instead of SMS.

dc2k08 13y ago

Highjacking top-comment to link mirrors: http://rorr.im/reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1qtk69/ http://rorr.im/reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1qtk69/ http://web.archive.org/web/20131114164356/http://www.zdnet.com/forced-google-plus-integration-on-youtube-backfires-petition-hits-112000-7000023196/ http://web.archive.org/web/20131114164356/http://www.zdnet.c...

ams6110 13y ago

For me, personally, if Google now wants to require a G+ profile and real name to post comments on YouTube, I don't care. They can find out the hard way whether this is a good idea or not. But lots of forums (from the original "Joel on Software" and many others) have encouraged use of real names as a way to keep things civil. Same reason newspapers require "letters to the editor" to be signed. And YouTube comments could stand a little cleansing. All that said, their "one account for all of Google" thing is really a PITA. I have several Google accounts that I use for entirely different purposes. One is for a project at work. One is for a non-profit that I help manage. One is my personal gmail. I don't want to mingle those, and I want a way to tell Google to stop asking me to do it. For now I try to remember to launch a new incognito/private browser session any time I access these services. At this point I'm NOT going to use Google services for any new projects/organizational purposes, and I am on the lookout for alternatives that provide what I need (mainly online docs, email, and listserv-like email groups) without all the annoyances.

jessor 13y ago
Use Chrome's multi-user feature for the different accounts. I manage around 10 different ones (private, youtube, nonprofits, others) like this with ease.
judk 13y ago
Joel and newspapers make no effort to verify your name. It is trivial to spoof. Integrated Google identity is harder to spoof if you use real id in any other part of the systen