Ads upon ads upon ads
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I like how like 10 years ago everyone went crazy about the apps. It seemed like you could have an app for everything, and everyone was enthusiastic about it. Nowadays I only open Play Store when I am in the need of specific utility, or to buy some classic RPG/other game ported to Android.
Most of the stuff in the store is just unusable shit.
And we need a store with actual quality apps (with no micro transactions, and being reviewed by people who care about usability), because certainly Google Play is not a good source for them.
And we need a store with actual quality apps (with no micro transactions, and being reviewed by people who care about usability), because certainly Google Play is not a good source for them.
Fdroid apps CAN have microtransactions I believe, and they’re not curated either, but overall, the quality is much better than Play Store and most apps are free and open source.
Alternatively, for games in particular, Apple Arcade is great, but it’s a subscription (cheap if combined with Music, TV and iCloud storage, otherwise several euros per month). The games aren’t allowed to have MTX or ads if they want to be on Arcade. But of course that requires moving to iOS (where the app store is much better than Play Store, BUT you don’t get alternatives like Fdroid on Android.)
I use a huge amount of open source f-droid apps, like my keyboard, my mail app, the one i’m typing on right now, SD maid 2, (Revanced). in my opinion these apps are just better. not only because i can trust them, also because they simply do what i downloaded them for, in the most efficient way possible.
Enshittification spares no one.
Happens when you don’t have competition. (Except to steam seemingly)
The difference is that Valve is privately owned. They don’t have to please a board of shareholders who want to see the platform milked for the slightest increase in profit margins.
We need more companies like that, then.
For that you need passionate people who are wealthy and not primarily driven to acquire more wealth. That seems to be very rare in large scale businesses.
Bingo. Enshittification is mostly confined to companies that have gone public or whose sole aspiration is to do so quickly.
It shifts responsibility from satisfying customers/users to satisfying shareholders (who are never satisfied).
You can build the perfect product and ride a gravy train as a private company in relative perpetuity. As a corporation, you’re just going to strive for perpetually increasing profits on a quarterly basis with no real care or focus past that
(Except to steam seemingly)
For now. I’m curious what’ll happen when Gabe eventually retires.
We also can’t ignore the fact that the Steam Marketplace is a hellhole and the origin of a lot of today’s microtransaction hell.
If you buy all your games on one platform then you’re thoroughly fucked if it turns heel.
Sure it does, but only those who have a zero-tolerance policy against using proprietary software. In the long run, Free Software is the only kind that can be relied upon not to betray you.
I agree, free software is the only thing that’s sure to not get worse over time. I took way too long to realize, now I have a shitload of stuff to migrate. I already ditched microsoft, but that google account is a real bitch to replace.
Since mobile gaming has died for me anyway, i have no reason to browse the store. For what I use it for, it’s fine. It has the apps i need and updates them.
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Anyway, what’s the big deal?
You’ve done quite a bit of typing on your touchscreen there. You would enjoy this BT keyboard sold by asabravatechioxnchientopia. Don’t forget AAA batteries.
This is the exact same thing I thought a couple of days ago. What the fuck is wrong with the product managers of the Playstore?
A single row of ads would be ok, but having this many plus an ad showing up first, where the search results should be… Oof
No it wouldn’t. Phones aren’t cheap.
They shouldn’t rely on ads to make money back on a phone IMHO.
Just leaving this here: Aurora Store
Aside of the lack of ads, I now depend on Aurora Store for batch app updates because the cocksuckers at Google Play have allowed devs to force app version updates even when you have disabled automatic updates for that specific app.
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IDK… I root all of my devices ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Isn’t that one of the things the FTC says can’t void warranties? They’ve been going after companies for those lousy warranty void stickers lately.
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Ok this is actually pretty cool. So I gave this a try and what I found in the first few mins of using it:
- you can login anonymously or with your own Google account (anonymous logs you into one of their shared Gmail accounts which personally I don’t like the idea of)
- it manages all existing apps too, so you can use it as a drop in replacement for the play store.
- Updates aren’t as well, there doesn’t appear to be a background update option as android requires you to confirm if you wish to install the update for each app.
Overall solid app. I don’t spend a lot of time in the PlayStore so the ads themselves don’t bother me. The moment though I begin getting pop up ads / notifications I’ll be jumping to this full time though
What is the difference with F-Droid?
F-Droid has special FOSS Apps only. Aurora Store delivers the same Apps like Play Store.
I’ve lost all of my faith in mobile gaming ecosystem ever since I saw that talk of the two guys that created a bot for generating and uploading as many slot machine games to the playstore as possible, just generic pull a lever, see an ad and that’s it, based on a random keyword like “owl slot machine” or “bathtub sloth machine” with pictures pulled from google images, that let the bot run for a few months and then found out that they made literally thousands of dollars of ad money.
I see Google’s review process for apps on the Play Store is as bad as their review process for extensions on the Chrome Web Store. Every couple of months ago, a new batch of malware is found on CWS, and you almost never see that with Firefox’s add-on marketplace, even when accounting for Firefox-based browsers having a much smaller userbase. And I’ve noticed that when it does happen, Mozilla is much quicker in laying down the banhammer than Google. Hell, Mozilla banned a browser hijacker named FVD Speed Dial, whilw Google has it featured on CWS to this day. ~Cherri
When I was looking for a good ad-blocker a few years back, I remember stumbling upon something like… Nano Defender? I’m not sure what was the name, but it was one of the few succesful anti-adblocks that managed to get past most of adblock killers, and was generally recommended on Reddit.
After a few years, the guy sold the extension to some Indian company that promptly infected it with credential stealing malware, which compromised most of my and my GFs accounts. Ever since that, I just don’t use any extensions apart from ublock and Bitwarden, since it’s just a huge security risk.
But I’m slowly building up the willpower to finally switch to Mulvad Browser + VPN, I really like the approach they took to fingerprinting - just use Tor Browser, don’t need any extensions, and it’s bundled with a VPN - so every other user has exactly the same fingerprint and IP as you, thus making you untrackable even by the most soffisticated methods. (Well, apart from the ones that uses ML to fingerprint you based on your typing and mouse habits…). But I have already gotten used to Librewolf, and it would mean getting rid of Bitwarden extension, and that’s -effort- :(
The Play Store peaked back when it was still called Android Market (which I still reckon is a better name). DAE remember
?Play store sounds like a game marketplace. Also Play has nothing to do with anything in googles brand so its really confusing why its still called that.
They tried having a Play ecosystem with Google Play Video, Music, Games, etc. Music was actually pretty good, so of course Google killed it in favor of YouTube Music, which is terrible and plays YouTube video versions of songs instead of actual album stuff.
Ytm definitely does have album content, wtf are you on about. Yes you can play videos there too, but it’s by no means the default.
It’s actually pretty good, just wish they did a lossless tier like tidal
It’s mixed. The worst is playlists, which are mostly just YouTube playlists without video. Was trying to play a Disney song playlist for a friend’s kid, and it was definitely from the videos, with all the sound effects from the scenes in the movies instead of just the song.
On the App Store, if I search for “Two Dots”, the first 2/3 of my screen is filled with “Two Dots” and when I scroll down, I get related apps. And when I scroll down FURTHER, I see ads for other apps.
Android the open-source OS is cool and all. As soon as you involve Google in your Android experience, you’re better off getting an iPhone instead. They at least have the common courtesy of giving you a reach-around while they… y’know.
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Linux is great! It’s such a zen environment.
Apple’s App Store has some ads. In my experience the first search result is always an ad, and every now and then the Today list features an ad. Not sure how much the normal data/results are skewed. It’s a store so you have to expect some kinda marketing tricks to sell you more. They tend to feature popular stuff.
It’s nowhere near as abhorrent as the post here.
I haven’t run into TikTok unless it has been featured or if it is the top result in the popular (free) apps chart. I wouldn’t dare searching for it 😆
We’ve all seen how movies depicted the future. Full of advertisement, even in kids show like Walle
Wait, what? A shitty Google product? Plagued by ads and spyware? No way!
As others have pointed out here, use Aurora Store or F-Droid.
Thanks to Lemmy, my phone went full FOSS. Always go full FOSS.
It’s great that you can’t unlock the bootloader to install graphene on carrier bought devices 👍
In Canada, carriers are required to only sell unlocked phones for the past several years.
Luckily, in 'murica, corporations can freak you over however they like 😎
Google is just a colorful façade. The insides of this bloated monstrosity is filled with ads and sellable user data. It needs to be put out of its misery.
It is an advertisement company after all :/
Yes, but the product they sell is You. They’re more like a pimp version of ad companies. But not the racist Hollywood type, you know: funny dressed black guy with a cylinder hat and a cane. No, this one wears wife beaters, takes showers once or twice a month and takes advantage of you every day, and still sells you to the lowest bidder…
