Hacker News Reader

Comment by mthoms | Hacker News Reader

>That doesn’t work because Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc would move to side loading or a freedom store. To use those apps I’d have to go outside the App Store.

I just hear this claim touted a lot around HN. I'm trying to determine if it's FUD by examining the evidence. Do you have any examples that fit this criteria? That is, can you name any modestly popular apps that moved from the App Store on Android to a sideload-only model?

View on HN

Fortnite was launched outside of Play Store. You needed to firstly sideload Epic Games Store from their website and then download and install Fortnite. People got mad because they couldn’t find Fortnite on Play Store and started searching on the web. Malware bad boys created a lot of fake pages with malicious Fortnite APK files which in result started stealing personal and finance data. Tim Sweeney failed with that idea and moved to Play Store, but got mad since Google forbids you to bypass Google Billing in games. That’s why his Fortnite was removed from Play Store after malicious hotpatch with their payment system. Clear example how sideloaing failed.

To avoid privacy controls on the Play Store? No, because the play store is run by Google who don’t give half a crap about privacy.

Facebook abandoning the App Store just to remove the privacy warning labels would be corporate suicide. They'd just be trading one set of scaring warning labels for another (because side loading would certainly have scary labels). And they'd have way less exposure to new customers.

The iOS built in controls would still be the same.

There just isn't a compelling case for a major app to go sideload-only. This entire line of reasoning smells like FUD.

Personally, I would prefer just one App Store with Apple compromising in other ways. Lower fees, consistent application of the rules, and proper support for PWA's. How do you feel about that?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com