No definitely don’t sideload a YouTube client that doesn’t play ads!
What color do you like? I like Gray.
I like the red one with a pipe
That’s rich when the Google Play store is full of malware while F-Droid is full of gems.
Is there a good guide on f-droid and sideloading you recommend?
If it is something that Google doesn’t recommend then I should probably be doing it.
All you have to do is download the APK from the F-Droid website and enable installing from third-party/unknown sources in the Settings app (some versions of Android ask automatically when you try to open the APK). I also recommend disabling unknown sources for your browser once you’re done as a security measure.
For F-Droid in specific, you’ll need an F-Droid client. I use Droid-ify (GitHub) (F-Droid) (IzzyOnDroid), but you can use whichever you prefer. F-Droid is a good source for open source apps.
If you’re sideloading from different sources, Obtanium (GitHub) (IzzyOnDroid) is useful to download apps, and keep them updated. You can even kinda use it as an F-Droid client.
Google is pretty lax on what it allows on Google play, so unless you’re trying to avoid using Google services or you want to install apps that aren’t on the play store, you don’t need to do it.
If you want adbocking and extra features in some apps (especially YouTube), check out ReVanced.
Google isn’t lying - there are risks to sideloading if you don’t know what you’re doing. Make sure what you’re downloading is coming from legitimate sources you trust. For example, if you look up ReVanced, some unofficial websites show up which may have malware. Triple check everything is coming from an official source.
Here is a link to detailed descriptions of the recommended apps from fdroid.
Use whichever you like, but this is a good starting area:
https://lemmy.world/post/108566
https://alternativeto.net/list/28655/the-ultimate-f-droid-setup/
This is the real truth. Man, the gall of that guy.
Hi, we are a spyware company. Be aware. Don’t load apps that don’t meet our surveillance metrics. Only download our spyware. Thank you.
Screw that guy. How about only sideload. There’s another world out there, and it doesn’t equate to surveillance capitalism.
Google’s ADS as a whole are malicious. Try Google drivers or TeamViewer and the first sponsored links are malicious/adware. It’s absolutely shocking.
I added ublock origin into my clients GPO to protect myself from viruses. Msoft just as bad if not worse since we are all using their products to be protected from.
F-Droid changed my life
It’s awesome!
Honestly been steadily becoming less happy with the way Google/Android has been going even since Pichai took over.
Enshittification.
What makes you say that, specifically?
It’s a term coined by Cory Doctorow, Sci-Fi writer and ex-EFF, who has been writing about (tech) monopolies, and in particular monopsonies, and how those types of two sided markets originally grow by given users something they need, often for an artificial low price or even free, until they dominate that side of the market, after which they focus mostly on the other side of the market, in this case advertisers, and step by step, slowly dismantling the reason users originally liked their product… Enshittification.
Doctorow has lots to say, so here’s a link.
Now that the concept has caught on so widely, I’ve often wished @[email protected] had gone with a less scatological term. But maybe that is part of the reason it caught on 🤷🏻♀️
That’s 100% the reason it caught on.
People around here seem to really really like saying it.
There is some perception bias there, because you won’t hear that much from people who don’t want to use the term (like me), unless they engage in a pointless meta-comment like this one.
That’s fair. I personally hate it, but I see it in almost every thread about what big tech is up to.
“Ensuckification?”
In court: “Google isn’t a monopoly because we allow sideloading!”
Outside of court: “Don’t sideload. It’s dangerous and terrible!”
They are still allowing it tho
Because the courts made them lol
Sideloading is one of the greatest things we have.
I’m so glad we have it. It almost feels like power and control from a bygone age.
Of course this guy whose net worth is >$100m will be telling us not to use it.
Fuck him.
I’ve tried downloading some of the games that are on the Play Store for my kids, and by God those apps are cancerous. An ad every 30 seconds and the games are made purely with getting the players to become addicted in mind. Get off your fucking high horse Pichai.
Fun fact: You can sideload an adblocker that will legit block any ads in apps.
It’s called Blokada 5, and you have to download it from their website and sideload it because Google banned apps that use its functionality from the Play store.
So satisfying never seeing ads in apps.
Thanks for the tip!
There are some games that are genuinely aimed at being educational and fun, such as the Duck Duck Goose games. Or Starfall (from the website of the same name).
Oh yeah sure! The games from Baby Bus are alright, and there are some dino games which teach you programming. All very good, but as soon as an ad appears, 9 times out of 10 it’s one of those crappy, slapped together in a day, Unity games filled to the brim with ads itself. Showing characters from popular franchises (like Marvel, and most likely not paid for), and my kid goes “dad, I want that one”. Now I have Family Link installed so I have to allow everything he wants to download or pay for, but geez there’s so much junk on there.
I’d be sort of OK with the CEOs statement, if they did any sort of moderation on those predatory games aimed at kids. But alas.
I would say " well now I will", but I already do this
Now I’m going to do it even harder!
Basically everything outside fdroid is riddled with trackers and ads so no, thanks
Funny how search engine giant Google doesn’t implement a filter for “no ads, no in-app purchases.”
People might actually be able to find what they’re looking for instead of what google wants them to find.
Recently Android added another scary “malicious” warning to the already numerous scary dialogs if one tries to install F-Droid. The “Install anyways” button also became hidden in the “More details” menu.
It’s not just F-Droid, it’s any app.
This has been the final straw for me to fully de-google my life.
F you Google, Play, etc.
Currently setting up my next phone with no googlage.
aka “Please only ever buy things off the Google Play store”
If neither Google nor Apple took such a massive rake on the payments, fewer people would take issue with the main app distribution implementations. They have valid reasons for trying to keep you in their ecosystem, but those are severely undercut by taking such a huge percentage.
What is it, 30%? That’s pretty standard.
Standard? They’re the only two players, if they both took 99% it would be standard
stfu pichai
I do what I want. I’m eating Mac and cheese and nobody can stop me!
Hope it has bacon.
Dude, just today I made 10 lbs of spicy bacon mac and cheese. This shit is so lit it gives the sun a run for it’s money.
I’m in awe.
😍
Only my baked Mac n cheese has bacon. The stove top stuff doesn’t but it does have panko.
Ironically, I see articles every month telling android users to uninstall a slew of shit malware apps that were on the play store. Thanks Pichai, but I’ll take my chances with more reputable sources.
Scan them with play protect, it’s an amazing piece of development that makes me feel truly safe in what I install on Google’s device they have lended me.
You know what I think I’m going to side load even harder
