trackbook
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y20k
POLL: Should Trackbook leave Google Play?
A couple of month ago I installed LineageOS for microG on my phone. LineageOS for microG is an Android distribution that comes with the F-Droid store preinstalled. I must say, since I was using mainly Open Source apps before, I really did not miss the Google Play Store much. That made me think: Should I pull Trackbook from Google Play. I personally like F-Droid a 1000 times better than Google Play. F-Droid for me is by far the better home for my app.
I am interested in your thoughts ...
Why not both? Logically as a dev, maximizing your exposure is the smart play, not reason to remove from the Play store.
I feel that updates through Google Play are more convenient, though that may just be because of my general inflexibility towards making large-scale changes of services I use. (Example: I have yet to migrate my passwords from Google to KeePass lol)
I've been a fan and supporter of open source software ever since the 1990s when M$ were threatening to take over the World, and I'm not keen on Google doing similarly, so I avoid the Play Store whenever I can. It's not exactly difficult to install F-Droid from an apk (once you've ignored the Android [Google] warning that your phone will turn to jelly and your family be stricken with a plague 😃 ) and it's very easy to use.
@y20k Objectively I guess you need to ask yourself a number of questions (in no particular order):
- How much of your time could you save by maintaining the app on just one platform?
- Does it matter to you that you may lose a few users?
- How will you inform existing users that the app will only be available from F-Droid in future?
- How much to you hate Google 😃 .
- .... there may be others
I am reopening this issue. Things have changed. I do not feel comfortable with the upcoming Play Store requirement to use App Bundles instead of APKs for app distribution. XDA had a good article about the pros and cons of this change. Anyway. I would like to continue to sign my apps using my own signing key. Therefore again I am considering to leave the Play Store.
What's the issue? I don't like the move by Google, but you can still use your own key.
Old System
I build and sign the app. And the app does not get changed after that. You cannot install updates, if they are not signed with my key. No way for anyone to tamper with the app after I signed it. Super simple.
New System
(Hope I get it right, it is a bit more complicated)
Google will host the signing key. (This key can be provided by me, that is true.) But still I would have to upload an app that can be tampered with before Google signs and distributes it to users.
I know there is a way to compare the app I uploaded withe the app that is eventually distributed ("Code Transparency"). As far as I understand, there is no automatic way to validate the app's integrity before install/update, that is comparable to the signing check in the Old System. If you are interested in this topic, you may want to read; https://commonsware.com/blog/2021/06/29/initial-thoughts-code-transparency.html (If you haven't already) This blog post is more correct an to the point than my comment here :-)
I always prefer F-Droid over google play (running GrapheneOS). If you don't mind a drop in exposer to the masses, or you find the support of play services to be too much work, drop it like its hot.
My view on this hasn't changed since my last comment on 24 May 2019. Since then Google seem to have made things more difficult for developers! :thumbsdown: