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Comment on Epic win: Jury decides Google has illegal monopoly in app store fight

No, then you won’t even be able to use in-app purchases.

Android supposedly has an option to side load, and even install another store, but in order to do it, you get through a series of warnings, and such stores can’t even be on the play store. So for an ordinary user you feel like you are hacking the phone. So naturally there aren’t many alternatives. The only one that lasted is F-Droid, but it seems to be only used by advanced users who want to run open source software.

So simply, theoretically they should be able to do whatever they want practically everyone has to stick to play store.

Play store has a rule, that additional charges need to go through them (and they of course charge 30%). This probably would still be ok, but then certain vendors don’t need to follow the same rules.

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d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
No, then you won’t even be able to use in-app purchases.

That’s not true - they wouldn’t be able to use the Google Play APIs for payments of course, but if the app is sideloaded they can definitely use any payment processor / method. If the app isn’t on the Play Store then Google has no say over it. The issue was Google was pressuring Epic into using the Play Store (allegedly) so that they could get their 30% cut, but I’m not even sure how they’d do that, when

Android supposedly has an option to side load, and even install another store, but in order to do it, you get through a series of warnings

It’s really not as difficult as you make it seem.

Send a link to the user somehow (SMS, email etc); or user goes to the website

Click on the Download button

Open the APK

In the dialog box that pops up, click on the Settings button > then tick Samsung Internet

Click on the Install button

That’s it. There were no “series of warnings” to go thru, no need to flip between multiple screens or anything. I literally just went thru this process to install the Epic store my Galaxy Fold 4, and it was in no way complicated or “scary” at all. And bear in mind that the audience in this case were gamers - gamers who are already used to the concept of downloading and installing programs on their PC, so it’s not like you’re targeting some tech-illiterate people here.

The only one that lasted is F-Droid

Not true again. Aurora Droid and Droid-ify are both reasonably popular, at least in the OSS/enthusiast communities. Yes they use the F-Droid repos but they also subscribe to other repos (Guardian Project, Izzy etc), so you’re getting your apps from multiple sources.

There are also proprietary stores such as Aptoide which are quite popular in the Asian markets. Finally, you’re completely ignoring other stores which are bundled out-of-the-box phones, such as the Galaxy Store on Samsungs, Mi Store on Xiaomis, AppGallery on Huawei etc. Of course, in the western market the Play Store is the most dominant, but the Samsung store is reasonably popular among Samsung users (as they have regular deals on games and various other apps + some exclusives like Good Lock and other Samsung-specific apps), and of course, the OEM stores are quite popular in Asian markets.
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- Gestrid@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Not OP, and, correct me if I’m misremembering, but you did actually used to have to enable developer options to be able to sideload at all, and Android doesn’t tell you how to do that.
  
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- yamanii@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You seem too certain that it’s still simple, but everytime I’m installing a new APK my Xiaomi makes me wait 10 seconds and puts a big, red, scary sign saying how dangerous it is to side load, then finally the ok buttons unlocks and I install my app.
  
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  - helenslunch@feddit.nl ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    That’s a problem with Xiaomi, not Google or Android.
    
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helenslunch@feddit.nl ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

No, then you won’t even be able to use in-app purchases.

I didn’t realize that. Never actually tried to buy anything. You can’t even make purchases in the Samsung store? Or Huawei?

Android supposedly has an option to side load, and even install another store, but in order to do it, you get through a series of warnings, and such stores can’t even be on the play store.

Yes you can, and I have several times. You are put through a series of warnings just like you are when downloading an executable in the browser, or installing it on Windows. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

Play store has a rule, that additional charges need to go through them

But we’re not talking about Play Store…

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- d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  No, then you won’t even be able to use in-app purchases.
  
  I didn’t realize that. Never actually tried to buy anything. You can’t even make purchases in the Samsung store? Or Huawei?
  
  OP is mistaken - you can make purchases in side-loaded apps, only thing is that app can’t use the Google Play APIs for that (obviously) - but they’re free to use PayPal or stripe or w/e payment method. Google has no way of preventing sideloaded apps from doing that, and it’s not like they can ban them either.
  
  You are put through a series of warnings just like you are when downloading an executable in the browser, or installing it on Windows.
  
  Actually, there isn’t even any actual “warning” - at least not on my Fold 4 - there was just one dialog to enable installation from unknown sources, with a “Settings” button that takes you directly to the page where you need to tick the box next to your browser, and as soon as you tick the box, you can click on the “Install” button to install it. That’s it. None of the dialogs you interact with has any actual warnings.
  
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- baronvonj@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  But we’re not talking about Play Store…
  
  Epic is, in the law suite they just won.
  
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  - helenslunch@feddit.nl ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    So the issue is that they don’t want to pay commission on in-app purchases after people download their app from the Google Play store?
    
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    baronvonj@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I believe that is the crux of it. And apparently part of the trial exposed that some big players have special deals such that don’t have to pay those in-app purchase commissions, or at least have a smaller commission. And that’s what makes it an abuse of their market position.
    
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