this post was submitted on 14 May 2025
632 points (98.5% liked)

Technology

70031 readers
4110 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Redex68@lemmy.world 12 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

It seems that Google just gave them back the permission, 2 days after they publicly complained about it and after 6 months of ignoring it. What scumbags.

[–] parody@lemmings.world 2 points 11 hours ago

Great, thanks, otherwise would not have clicked:

Hacker News commenters were really skeptical the new call/feature was insufficient. Anyone know whether these APIs would’ve been OK after all?

Storage Access Framework (SAF) or MediaStore API

[–] BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago

The more tech-savvy of you are certainly able to use the alternative app store, such as F-Droid. But for our user base of roughly one million users on the app store, this will hardly be an option.

They have the merit to link to F-droid, but damn they are not selling it well...
I don't even know if they get any remuneration from Google anyway?
By the way fuck Google

[–] kalpol@lemm.ee 3 points 14 hours ago

I had no idea this was going on. Is it because I'm running Lineage?

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 32 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Tl;dr: Google being anticompetitive by hampering third-party cloud sync via permissions (while themselves are not affected).

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 9 points 20 hours ago

When I switched to iOS, the biggest pain point for me was Apples stranglehold on background processes meant file syncing didn’t work very well. Now it looks like Android has completely killed it?

[–] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 66 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So, all the family phones that are using this feature for handset backups. They're just gonna stop backing up?

Thanks, Google. Thanks for protecting me from free software that scans files on my own phone and transmits it across my own network to my own server. Such a privacy nightmare. /s

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago

Guessing they want you to use Google One, eh.

[–] AnonomousWolf@piefed.social 154 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Thankfully the full feature will still work if you get the app from F-Droid

Hopefully this will motivate more people use F-Droid

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 84 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I noticed that in their info text shown to their users, they don't mention F-Droid. I wonder if google doesn't allow them to mention other stores as part of their "security" policies.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 1 day ago

Upvote the comments in the Google play reviews that mention full features in fdroids version so they climb to the top of most helpful reviews.

[–] AnonomousWolf@piefed.social 46 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Interesting, Yes I think users should be made aware that if they get the app from F-Droid it will work as intended.

[–] KneeTitts@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago

This must be why I never noticed the issue because I have always gotten my apps from fdroid

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] geography082@lemm.ee 43 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] xeekei@lemm.ee 4 points 13 hours ago

I check for all apps on f-droid first, play store second.

[–] TerHu@lemm.ee 4 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

does that issue not exist in the f-droid version? if so, i’m glad there’s a workaround when i try graphene😅

[–] r0ertel@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago

The issue does not exist with the version installed from F-Droid. I think the Play Store version is a different build with the feature disabled as a condition of hosting it on the Play Sore.

The Android app itself still works with the permission, and we released new versions on the external F-Droid store. So the limit is a “purely” Google Play Store-related problem.

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 1 points 16 hours ago

This is my question. I didn't read into it much, but isn't the problem a permissions level thing in android, or is this specific to the play store?

[–] corroded@lemmy.world 158 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As the article mentions, this isn't a security "feature," it's anti-competetive. The worst part is that Nextcloud isn't even really in competition with Google. Setting up a Nextcloud server isn't hard, but it's not a trivial task. Sharing it outside your local network also requires a bit of skill, especially if done securely. That is to say, Nextcloud users probably tend to be more tech-savvy.

The people using Nextcloud aren't going to suddenly decide to switch over to Google Drive. I'll get it from FDroid before I downgrade to Google Drive. If that wasn't an option, I'd set up an FTP server or even WebDAV.

[–] 486@lemmy.world 61 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The worst part is that Nextcloud isn’t even really in competition with Google. Setting up a Nextcloud server isn’t hard, but it’s not a trivial task. Sharing it outside your local network also requires a bit of skill, especially if done securely. That is to say, Nextcloud users probably tend to be more tech-savvy.

That's only true for those who self-host this. There are lots of companies offering Nextcloud hosting. That's probably why Google doesn't like Nextcloud. I'm not saying Google is right. Actually what Google is doing here is quite pathetic.

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 day ago

Actually what Google is doing here is quite pathetic.

So business as usual then?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 28 points 1 day ago

I'm assuming that Nextcloud handles all it's moneymaking outside of the app (indeed it appears to be free if you host the server yourself).

If Google were making 30% on a ton of in-app purchases, they'd let it harvest your fucking organs.

[–] higgsboson@dubvee.org 49 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I never use a Play Store version of anything I can find on F-droid or other repos I trust. Then I try it using Aurora Store. Only as a last-resort I try Google. Play Store is only for things I cannot obtian or replace another way.

[–] Ekpu@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (9 children)

Learned the hard way that android auto compatibility (on GrapheneOS) works only with the playstore Version of an app because andoid auto checks the install source. Thats the same gatekeeping at play...

Thanks I hate it.

[–] phx@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

AA is also EXTREMELY vpn-unfriendly. It fails to work period of I've got a wireguard VPN without app restrictions, even if there are only a handful of routes using the tunnel. Then, if I restrict the VPN to just certain apps, it'll still give me the big ol' middle finger running those apps via AA, which means I can't stream from my home media host over VPN while using AA because Papa Google apps no.

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 1 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Really? I'm set up for always on wireguard when not on my home network. And android auto works fine. And yeah, I'm doing full tunnel.

[–] phx@lemmy.ca 1 points 7 hours ago

What apps are you using? It refuses to connect to my phone period of on globally, and won't work with stuff like FinAmp if used app-specific

[–] higgsboson@dubvee.org 1 points 13 hours ago

It seems likely you are using it tethered, vs wireless.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] kokesh@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Google works on making Android shit for the past few years. For example idiotic green dot showing me "something is using gps". Why don't I have a choice to remove it? Or not allowing apps to get a process list? It will end up dumb as iOS to within couple years.

[–] Fiery@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

To be fair, not allowing the user to remove an indicator that something could be tracking them is probably not the worst idea. Otherwise it'd be too easy for someone to install an app like that and hide it.

[–] kokesh@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's been in the corner of my amoled screen practically nonstop for 3 years now. I'm really surprised that i don't have burn-in in that corner.

[–] parody@lemmings.world 1 points 11 hours ago

Hmm, Apple intelligently hides the dots, I’d be annoyed too

[–] MintyFresh@lemmy.world 74 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (22 children)

Unfettered capitalism is just fucking exhausting. What a bunch of assholes. I really need to degoogle my life. Idk how to strip android off my phone and replace it with whatever, but I guess I'm about to find out.

Edit: ty all. I'm gonna check out f droid and go from there!

[–] Humanius@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The problem in this case is the Google Play Store, not Android.

Google is blocking Nextcloud from updating their app on the Play Store unless they remove this vital permission. But nothing is stopping Nextcloud from making their app available on third party app stores with the approriate permissions.

If you download the app from F-Droid instead, it should work correctly.


That is not to say that what Google is doing isn't monopolistic. I'm just pointing out that you can bypass this restriction by not using their app store.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (21 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›