Any idea how this demand is different from the current state of Android?
Under Epic’s terms, any app downloaded from anywhere would operate identically to apps downloaded from Google Play, without Google imposing any unnecessary distribution fees.
Last time I used it, I downloaded all my apps through F-Droid, and I didn’t think they were paying Google anything?
They probably mean, for example, not having to prompt the user to allow installs from “unknown sources”, allowing alternative app stores to update apps and themselves automatically in the background like Google Play does, allow installations from alternative stores with one tap without extra user interaction, etc.
I must have had an extension at the time, but it sounds like F-Droid does automatic updates for anything Android 12+ now?
https://f-droid.org/de/2024/02/01/twif.html
I guess the nag screen can be scary, though. Good point
The nag screen is important for a bunch of less technically literate people who would otherwise install malware without thinking twice.
Or even once.
I really don’t know how to feel about it
The people it’s intended to protect will just click “yes” to anything in my experience
I don’t have a statistical analysis of results over a normal distribution of the world population, though
I feel like Epic wouldn’t be so strident about it without proof that it negatively affecting install rate.
But maybe the perception that it affects the rate is sufficient.
I think it affects install rate by design, which is bad for Epic in this case but good for security in most
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“Epic’s filing to the US Federal Court shows again that it simply wants the benefits of Google Play without having to pay for it,” Google’s spokesperson said. “We’ll continue to challenge the verdict, as Android is an open mobile platform that faces fierce competition from the Apple App Store, as well as app stores on Android devices, PCs, and gaming consoles.”
Is this the mocking? Its not a very good mocking!
Man, I never bought an iPhone because I despise apple and their closed ecosystem, so I was with android since the start.
But google has made me want to not buy android phones for over a decade, but what else is there
Ars is usually better than this. The title for this article makes no sense.
