Ultramanoid said:
Google now wants to kill the .apk, and turn all Android applications into Play Store "bundles", even asking developers to hand over the signing keys.
Google Play dumps APKs for the more Google-controlled “Android App Bundle”
Starting in August, new apps will need to turn over their signing keys to Google.
arstechnica.com
That's something I would pay to NOT have.
Now, THAT would be a very big difference between Silver and XDA versions. I hope there'll always be an independent, Google-free MiX over here, signed by Hootan only.
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Click to collapse
I don't know whether to [complain bitterly; original word choice asterisked out] about Google or ArsTechnica: Google will "allow" a developer to retain a copy of the private key that the developer uploaded to Google?
Is there really no hope that developers will tell Google to pound sand?
J.Michael said:
I don't know whether to [complain bitterly; original word choice asterisked out] about Google or ArsTechnica: Google will "allow" a developer to retain a copy of the private key that the developer uploaded to Google?
Is there really no hope that developers will tell Google to pound sand?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ars also keeps track of projects Google kills and mocks them for it aaaall the time, to be fair.
No one prevents developers from making single APKs at present, but maintaining two versions, one for Play, one outside, is already giving them more work.
For some it may be worth it. For others, they're probably going to stick to the "rules" and give it all up.
Google might eventually just prevent Android from using "old" APK formats. But that'd be years away at any rate. Thank Android's glacial update pace. ( Compared to other OSes, such a big chunk of users of Android is on older versions, that it's not realistic to impose drastic changes such as this. )
Then again, Google changes its mind about things all the time. We'll see how this plays out. Horrible pun intended. I don't think any developer can take Google seriously about anything at this point.
( Personally I just use XDA, GitHub and F-Droid. No Play, no Google services, applications, or anything. And have for years now. Hope it doesn't affect us Google-free-freaks too much. )
Ultramanoid said:
...
No one prevents developers from making single APKs at present, but maintaining two versions, one for Play, one outside, is already giving them more work.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My idea of telling Google to pound sand is to refuse to deal with this app bundle crap. In an ideal world, Google would be left with no apps worth having.
No, I'm not holding my breath.
J.Michael said:
My idea of telling Google to pound sand is to refuse to deal with this app bundle crap. In an ideal world, Google would be left with no apps worth having.
No, I'm not holding my breath.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish the Android Open Source Project had real teeth. I think that would solve all issues.
And then Google, or Samsung, or any other company, same as they do with Linux, could build whatever services they wish on top and profit, kill, steal, whatever it is they do. But users could have a choice not to be used themselves -- or be, if they don't care, and developers as well not to be treated as they are today. I mean, Play takes a 30% cut from your profit, tells you what you can do and how, and now your signing keys, too, please ? What the hell.
Unfortunately other than Lineage and their builds, nowadays, there is no other option when it comes to a functional Android other than Google's version of it.
AOSP is barely a skeleton. Google has been slowly killing it, removing more and more from it, or rather, moving functionality to their own services. Location for instance was long ago part of AOSP, and then they moved it to their proprietary bits. Same with everything else.
Why Google Play's APK replacement is scaring some security experts
Google Play will soon force developers to upload App Bundles instead of APKs, raising uncomfortable security questions about the requirement.
www.xda-developers.com
sd_shadow said:
Why Google Play's APK replacement is scaring some security experts
Google Play will soon force developers to upload App Bundles instead of APKs, raising uncomfortable security questions about the requirement.
www.xda-developers.com
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Click to collapse
"Look, we've been charging you to tell you how to dress your kids. But now, since our house is safer, we really must insist that they move in with us. Don't worry, you can come visit whenever you like."
Related
Hi all,
I had a few apps on the Play Store some months ago, which got removed after Google decided to ban me from the Play Store for who knows what reason. Apparently the cause was the "sexy" nature of the apps, which still doesn't explain why my app got kicked out and so many apps that are much worse than mine still live there.
Well, anyway, I've decided to put them all back online on a website for users to download, so if you're interested in them feel free to download them and give me some feedback! All the apps have a brief descriptions and screenshots:
drfeelgoodsw . appspot . com (sorry, being a newbie no link allowed...)
They're all apps to quickly access galleries of well known sexy and gossip websites (Front Magazine, The Sun Page 3, Egotastic and so on), and they all allow you to mark those galleries as favourites, save them on your SD card, etc. Nothing fancy but I hope you'll enjoy them nevertheless! If you have any suggestion on how to improve them, or just know some other website you'd like a similar app to be made for, I'd love to hear it from you
They must have been deleted again because nothing comes up in a search for them
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
sixfearstheseven said:
They must have been deleted again because nothing comes up in a search for them
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I should have been clearer... by "back online" I actually meant they were available again on the web page I created for the purpose, not on the Play Store. I tried publishing them on Android PIT after they were removed from the Play Store, but that only lasted a few weeks, as apparently Android PIT only hosts apps that are also on the Play Store (quite silly of them, considering they're supposed to be an alternative market, but anyway...). I'm looking for other markets to publish the apps on, but until then the apps are available for download on the page I linked in my previous post. Those apps automatically look for updates using a JSON string on the same page, so updates should be easy to keep track of even without a Market in place.
No feedback? Either the apps are perfect the way they are, or they really suck!!
DrFeelgoodSW said:
No feedback? Either the apps are perfect the way they are, or they really suck!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also, I suspect that people are getting a bit wary of sideloading apks when they could be malware. That's unfortunately a level of trust you lost when you were banned from the play store.
cyansmoker said:
Also, I suspect that people are getting a bit wary of sideloading apks when they could be malware. That's unfortunately a level of trust you lost when you were banned from the play store.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, I hadn't thought about that...
Well, if that can help, I can post a screenshot of the mail from Google describing their exact reason why I got banned, which had nothing to do with malicious behaviour in my app. That said, anyone can just monitor the traffic my app generates, and see that, apart from an update check at the beginning (a GET to retrieve a JSON file), the only connections are towards the website each app is wrapping. I would be quite dumb to post malicious apps on an expert den of Androiders like XDA Developers anyway ehehe
Anyway, if that can help I ca post the complete source code of one of the apps to let people check that everything's fine. The core of the apps is mostly the same (activities, sqlite database, image cache, httpclient+jsoup), apart from differences related to their structure (e.g., Page3 has much more activities and choices than GQ), so that should help understand I'm not hijacking anything. Of course, you could object there is no guarantee the code I'm posting is exactly the one used to generate the APKs, as we'd be back to the trust issue at the beginning...
Well, if there's any way I convince those in doubt that I'm in good faith just let me know. About the Play Store, unfortunately there's no way I can get back there. In the mail I received, I was told I was banned and that I could not open a new account to publish the apps again, so that's out of the question. Android PIT only accepts apps that already are on the store, so no go either. I tried other markets like Androlib and SlideMe, but both failed to send me the confirmation mails I needed to confirm the account, so I'm wondering if they're even a viable solution for developers right now. I've already discarded the Amazon App Store option, as there's an annual fee the likes of which only Apple could conceive. Anyone knows more alternatives to publish apps?
All I am asking is some clarification or some links into why google restricts apps on the playstore by region?
I could understand why paid apps might not be available, whatever, but free apps should be free across the board. Thats why they are free right? Download them and use them. Whether you would be able to buy the pro versions or not depends.
This effectively judges people who are not likely to use the google play service to buy apps into oblivion. No apps, nothing. Google play is bare if you are not inside regions Devs want you to be or something. "Oh, dont happen to live in the places we are interested to sell our products, well, screw you!"
I dont get the whole region dsicrimination google does to people. What the hell am I supposed to do, start pirating apps? I can tell you for a fact that even apps like facebook are not aviable outside major regions such as North America or Europe and by europe I mean countries like germany,france,uk and so on, big or important countries in general in the EU.
This seriously puts me off using google play at all as I find this very damn unfair. Actually, I wont get an Android device, at least one that supports Google play as long as the guys in google think its smart to divide people within the places they live or are born. Just imagine if the internet was handled like this. In some places it is, and its just darn disgusting, having to use proxies and what not.
I dont know if apple or microsoft does this, so if somebody knows for a fact, or lives in regions excudling the EU, North America or Russia, please do tell.
I live in Indonesia, though I'm French.
When I'm bored and looking for some game apps, I check out the top downloaded apps on the Play Store. And let me tell you, when I see the amount of really crappy apps that make it to the top 50, I can definitely tell that I'm in an Indonesian Play Store. Is it a matter of really poor local taste or is someone employing cheap labor to promote nasty apps?
I read somewhere that you can avoid the region clock by tweaking the build.prop file but I'm not sure if it works for real
Inviato dal mio LG-P350f
You can use a VPN.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda app-developers app
navhostp wbrails
I have it. I cant buy Ikaruga for my Android
shadowcore said:
All I am asking is some clarification or some links into why google restricts apps on the playstore by region?
I could understand why paid apps might not be available, whatever, but free apps should be free across the board. Thats why they are free right? Download them and use them. Whether you would be able to buy the pro versions or not depends.
This effectively judges people who are not likely to use the google play service to buy apps into oblivion. No apps, nothing. Google play is bare if you are not inside regions Devs want you to be or something. "Oh, dont happen to live in the places we are interested to sell our products, well, screw you!"
I dont get the whole region dsicrimination google does to people. What the hell am I supposed to do, start pirating apps? I can tell you for a fact that even apps like facebook are not aviable outside major regions such as North America or Europe and by europe I mean countries like germany,france,uk and so on, big or important countries in general in the EU.
This seriously puts me off using google play at all as I find this very damn unfair. Actually, I wont get an Android device, at least one that supports Google play as long as the guys in google think its smart to divide people within the places they live or are born. Just imagine if the internet was handled like this. In some places it is, and its just darn disgusting, having to use proxies and what not.
I dont know if apple or microsoft does this, so if somebody knows for a fact, or lives in regions excudling the EU, North America or Russia, please do tell.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all I would like to clear ypur Doubt.
You Blaming Google Playstore then you are wrong as Restrictions of the app in Selected region is done by the developer of that app.
Who restricts some of the Regions while Publishing the app in the Playstore.
Most of the developer's select all but soke don't do it wont appear in those countries where the developer hasn't selected.
&
You cam also download the Apk of that free app and install it Manually.
All apps free are Available in Google.
Regards.
Zeuscluts
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Zeuscluts said:
First of all I would like to clear ypur Doubt.
You Blaming Google Playstore then you are wrong as Restrictions of the app in Selected region is done by the developer of that app.
Who restricts some of the Regions while Publishing the app in the Playstore.
Most of the developer's select all but soke don't do it wont appear in those countries where the developer hasn't selected.
&
You cam also download the Apk of that free app and install it Manually.
All apps free are Available in Google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google is enforcing those restrictions. If the devs dont want somebody to download their stuff from a certain country, they should at least bother to give a reason why. If its about piracy, then must be really thinking that pirates are dumb and cant get ahold of the apk to reverse engineer it from another source. Really...
Also, I dont believe that the guys who made facebook app set the restrictions, I could be wrong. Why would facebook, which works outside europe, not have a free app that is available everywhere? It makes no sense. It does not matter really. I just wish this issue got big and maybe forced google to change their playstore policy. At least free apps should be restriction free.
The only way to install apks, is to scavenge for apps on XDA and other place, check them manually if they contain suspicious activity and hope they are not malicious.
To others.
Thank you for your responses. I will try to investigate about the build prop idea and VPN if they work.
If anybody got a windows device, does microsoft enforce this policy with their appstore, because apple, yes apple, has no such policy. I can confirm that based on an iPhone 4s I got to see. Sigh...
shadowcore said:
Google is enforcing those restrictions. If the devs dont want somebody to download their stuff from a certain country, they should at least bother to give a reason why. If its about piracy, then must be really thinking that pirates are dumb and cant get ahold of the apk to reverse engineer it from another source. Really...
Also, I dont believe that the guys who made facebook app set the restrictions, I could be wrong. Why would facebook, which works outside europe, not have a free app that is available everywhere? It makes no sense. It does not matter really. I just wish this issue got big and maybe forced google to change their playstore policy. At least free apps should be restriction free.
The only way to install apks, is to scavenge for apps on XDA and other place, check them manually if they contain suspicious activity and hope they are not malicious.
To others.
Thank you for your responses. I will try to investigate about the build prop idea and VPN if they work.
If anybody got a windows device, does microsoft enforce this policy with their appstore, because apple, yes apple, has no such policy. I can confirm that based on an iPhone 4s I got to see. Sigh...
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Click to collapse
You can use VPN or proxies.
To doqnload them Directly through Playstore. ..
Regards.
Zeuscluts
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Hi everyone,
I have been researching and I've compiled a list of all the options available to use an Android device with Cyanogenmod without a Google account and I was wondering if anyone has a better solution considering the options I've found are all lacking.
Here is what I found including the issues for each option:
- Amazon web store (Not every app is available)
- Third party repositories, like apkmirror (Security implications of running apk that anyone can upload)
- F-Droid (Not every app is available)
- Getting the apps I need from the play store once and then backup the apks with a file manager (No updates) or I am going to need a different phone with a Google account and the play store.
Moral of the story, it's not easy to run an android phone without a google account.
Ps. A solution that I think could work (but I wasn't able to find a project that works) is an open source apk downloader (maybe on github) that get the apps straight from google via command line but all the projects I've seen are either out of date or not working...
Any suggestion is really appreciated! Thank you all!
Keep an android device with google play installed, then move the apks of things i really want, or bought already.
But honestly, after some choices I've made (running my own dropbox-like service on my server) I could definitely live with just F-Droid. Of course I'm not using some stuff like facebook or snapchat, so my needs in terms of apps isn't as extensive as others. Sometimes it does feel like i'm hamstrung when the next new fad comes and goes, but I'll live without them.
surfinpika said:
Keep an android device with google play installed, then move the apks of things i really want, or bought already.
But honestly, after some choices I've made (running my own dropbox-like service on my server) I could definitely live with just F-Droid. Of course I'm not using some stuff like facebook or snapchat, so my needs in terms of apps isn't as extensive as others. Sometimes it does feel like i'm hamstrung when the next new fad comes and goes, but I'll live without them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi surfinpika,
thanks for your input, I am starting to feel like your solution (of having a separate device with just the google account setup) is the cleanest option.
I am not into facebook or snapchat or the next fad either... but f-droid wouldn't cut it for me, stuff like keepass2android or some of the other apps I use are definitely not there. I wonder what are the security implications of using F-Droid compared to getting the apks from apkmirror. Considering my level of paranoia I wouldn't feel safe with either option.
_polymar said:
Hi surfinpika,
thanks for your input, I am starting to feel like your solution (of having a separate device with just the google account setup) is the cleanest option.
I am not into facebook or snapchat or the next fad either... but f-droid wouldn't cut it for me, stuff like keepass2android or some of the other apps I use are definitely not there. I wonder what are the security implications of using F-Droid compared to getting the apks from apkmirror. Considering my level of paranoia I wouldn't feel safe with either option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One issue I can think of with this approach is that both the device with google play store and the device where the apps are going to be installed will require the same CPU architecture.
Won't be able to download the apk on a cheap android (most likely ARM) and install it on ARM64...
_polymar said:
One issue I can think of with this approach is that both the device with google play store and the device where the apps are going to be installed will require the same CPU architecture.
Won't be able to download the apk on a cheap android (most likely ARM) and install it on ARM64...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, luckily my back up is the same architecture as my non-gapps phone.
And there are also ways of getting some of the apks straight from the sources, like keepass2android from the project's website. but even if it is google, they sort of give a sense of security in that the apk won't be messed with.
It's such a mess though otherwise, hard to separate the google from the android, and no other viable OSs are any better. hope some competition at least makes a nice little niche to get away from the big G.
Hi, I've recently set up my new S7 with LineageOS, and I'm determined to not install GAPPs or Google anything on this device. I've been able to find almost everything I need, but I'm still missing speech-to-text functionality.
I installed AnySoftKeyboard from F-Droid because it said it did speech-to-text in its description; however, when I attempted to use STT on the keyboard, I got a popup error message that said, "Voice Input is not installed on your device." The box had a button for installing this feature, but I suspect it pointed to a location on the Google Play store, since it offered to open F-Droid or Uptodown, neither of which had the needed app.
What can I do to obtain STT on this device without getting entangled with Google?
Even if you are using Los there are still Google closed binaries on your device. There is no way of getting away form Google with Android. Not completely.
zelendel said:
Even if you are using Los there are still Google closed binaries on your device. There is no way of getting away form Google with Android. Not completely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fine, sure, now do you have any helpful suggestions about TTS?
Feenix0 said:
Fine, sure, now do you have any helpful suggestions about TTS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only one I know that works on Android (was origianly made to work on feature phones.) is controlled by Google or Apple. There is no real open source free, none tracking, setup.
You could look up the Google less preoject and see if they got it working but last I heard most abonoded the project because it just wasn't worth it.
Feenix0 said:
Hi, I've recently set up my new S7 with LineageOS, and I'm determined to not install GAPPs or Google anything on this device. I've been able to find almost everything I need, but I'm still missing speech-to-text functionality.
I installed AnySoftKeyboard from F-Droid because it said it did speech-to-text in its description; however, when I attempted to use STT on the keyboard, I got a popup error message that said, "Voice Input is not installed on your device." The box had a button for installing this feature, but I suspect it pointed to a location on the Google Play store, since it offered to open F-Droid or Uptodown, neither of which had the needed app.
What can I do to obtain STT on this device without getting entangled with Google?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TTS and SST is bound to google, you can't download it from anywhere, and even if you download it, it won't work without google services, you must install Gapps (Nano), hope it'll help
Seems like this is a dead end, for now, but I found lots of things in the works. I expect that we'll be seeing viable alternative STT services in a few years. Google, Microsoft, and Apple are always going to be at the front in this sort of thing because of their budgets, but open source will catch up.
This may be the reason I get into android app development... local, although not as good, STT is possible, I wrote some stuff in Python to do this on an embedded system. You just have to train, or purchase voice models. There are also many cloud based solutions other than Google at this point, so I don't believe this to be technologically impossible.
japtain.cack said:
This may be the reason I get into android app development... local, although not as good, STT is possible, I wrote some stuff in Python to do this on an embedded system. You just have to train, or purchase voice models. There are also many cloud based solutions other than Google at this point, so I don't believe this to be technologically impossible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the feedback. I've actually retired the S7 for a OP 7T, and I'm pretty much resigned to Goggle STT for now.
Feenix0 said:
Thanks for the feedback. I've actually retired the S7 for a OP 7T, and I'm pretty much resigned to Goggle STT for now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Finally, with the flashing of my phone, my life is 100% Google free. Not even using MicroG. #GoogleYou'reFired. I'll just be doing without STT until I figure out a solution.
japtain.cack said:
Finally, with the flashing of my phone, my life is 100% Google free. Not even using MicroG. #GoogleYou'reFired. I'll just be doing without STT until I figure out a solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Until I find a satisfactory alternative to Google's email, calendar, contacts, and cloud storage solutions, I'll still be here. Not that I'm looking right now...but one day. Maybe I'll try MicroG on my next phone. Maybe Elon Musk will roll out a linux-based, fully open source phone and supporting systems. Here's hoping!
Feenix0 said:
Until I find a satisfactory alternative to Google's email, calendar, contacts, and cloud storage solutions, I'll still be here. Not that I'm looking right now...but one day. Maybe I'll try MicroG on my next phone. Maybe Elon Musk will roll out a linux-based, fully open source phone and supporting systems. Here's hoping!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I'm using the synology nas and suite of apps. They are pretty OK. The sacrifices we make to opt out of data mining and the selling of our data to third parties... I currently have no plans to use microg. If elon makes a phone, I'd buy it, hopefully it would be better and more open.
japtain.cack said:
Yeah, I'm using the synology nas and suite of apps. They are pretty OK. The sacrifices we make to opt out of data mining and the selling of our data to third parties... I currently have no plans to use microg. If elon makes a phone, I'd buy it, hopefully it would be better and more open.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Considering how closed source all of elon projects are I very much doubt he'd bring out an open source android competitor, probs call it the xphone, pay to remove the integrated ****coin miner and some more for the ability to use his new 5g networking but hey maybe it'll have fart sounds as notifactions
it's crazy when you don't want Google on your phone for privacy,
like some devs have "google play DRM" with their app, so even if you do "APK" backup, it won't work unless you have google services and google play store.
heck, some of these apps require you to be "OnLiNe" for 24h wtf is this?
its 2022 devs should do better than this and stay a way from monopoly and anti-privacy companies.
Well put. For some apps, I have offered devs 10 to 20 USD to buy a license. Very few bother to reply. These apps might cost 2 to 5 USD on google play. My phone has no gapps installed so often I have to get these apks from other sources. In many cases I already paid for them when I had google play years ago, so I don't feel any guilt in using them. It is indeed a hassle to attempt to patch apps I previously bought to run on a phone without google as they otherwise phone home for a license check.
However when I did get a reply from a dev I bought thru Amazon and emailed the payment screenshot to the dev and they sent me a link to download an apk!
Anyone on here should be able to install an apk without an app store.
Fdroid is the only app repository I will consider putting on my phone.
Strange times indeed. Very few people understand that most of the network activity done by apps has very little to do with the apps actual functioning, in most cases. Its just a privatized big brother. I hate it.
End rant. Sorry.