Comment by squarefoot | Hacker News Reader

Comment by squarefoot | Hacker News Reader

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Tell Google how you feel about that by searching "google app store alternatives", then installing Aurora Store.

https://auroraoss.com/

https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS

From the Aurora Store FAQ:

What is the difference between Aurora Store and Google's Play store?

Unlike Google's Play Store, Aurora Store doesn't track your downloads or the apps you use. We respect your privacy. Aurora Store is also unaffected by Google marking your device as uncertified or lacking of necessary Google apps. Play Protect is not present, as this is a Play Store only feature.

Do I need Google Play Services to use Aurora Store?

No. Aurora Store was built to access the Google Play store without any kind of Google services. It doesn't matter if you use it with or without Google Play Services/MicroG.

Is it safe to use Aurora store?

Aurora Store is fully open-source and verified by F-Droid. If you're asking about the safety of the apps in the store, those are the exact same ones the Play Store would load and display. A lot of dangerous stuff seems to sneak past Google though, so as a rule of thumb, don't download anything which you're unsure about.

This may also be relevant to those wishing to switch. In the part of the FAQ concerning using your own account to login.

>However, you may want to be careful as Google retains full rights to block any account under their Google Play Terms of Service §4 (opens new window), because using Aurora Store clearly violates their terms of services. Being banned means that the very Google account you used to sign in with will be blocked forever. It might be worth using a dummy account for that reason.

I don't know how often using aurora store has actually resulted in a ban though.

Here's the google play ToS:

https://play.google.com/intl/en-us_us/about/play-terms/index...

>attempt to, or assist, authorize or encourage others to circumvent, disable or defeat any of the security features or components that protect, obfuscate or otherwise restrict access to any Content or Google Play.

Am I reading this correctly in that, this seems to me like just telling people about something like Aurora is against the terms of services and can get you banned whether you use it or not?

As in, even the gp comment technically breaks that rule just by posting that Aurora FAQ?

That's fairly intense if so.

Used to be that all tos were "subjects to change." ToS are mostly just random words anyways

An excellent comment. Terms of service still tend to be mostly words but they matter a lot.

I've always considered TOS's an abberation of contract law myself.

I've had many professional contracts with both private and commercial clients. In none of those cases was I ever allowed to provide a contract where I could just decide whatever I want, whenever I want and the customer is forced to agree otherwise...fuck them...and I still get paid.

The TOS are subject to change but at least here (France) tout have to be informed about the change and you can leave the contract at no cost of you do not agree.

It's more akin to guidelines than contract. This is why it's so aberrant to see them get so long and convoluted.

> That's fairly intense if so.

Nobody wants to lose his milky cow.

Don't expect a dummy account to help if you use the phone's phone number for your main google account.

How does this help? The Aurora Store is just an alternative Play Store client. If Google removes an app from the Play Store, it'll be gone from this too.

Aside from protection against profiling, it sends the message that users are aware of alternatives. Enough people doing that should in the long run discourage Google from bullying publishers that would have other means for distributing their software. I agree that it's not easy, and needs a lot of people jumping to alternative app stores before something could change, but I don't see other ways since it's clear that Google has no intention to listen to their users.

Aurora isn't an alternative App Store. It's an alternative Play Store client.

Mine was a broad statement, just by searching for alternatives you tell Google you know that they exist. You can use Aurora today and move to a different store tomorrow, or go straight there just now. Either way, you send the message that you know there is a world out there, and you know how to choose, which is what advertisers hate the most, because they want to be the ones that make you decide if and when you should switch to a product.

That is wishful thinking. Do you think anyone at Google reads through all of the search queries? Or do you think the search terms for alternative app stores will start trending sufficiently to catch Google's attention?

I'm missing the point too. If an app gets unjustly removed from GApp store, then it will get removed from here too?

Aurora could add other sources in the future or simply run it's own store.

Always amuses me when using google to search for <App> f-droid.

Google will always insist you meant <App> android and show you those results instead, which of course is the play store version if it exists.

I searched for "ssh f-droid" and the top 4 results were f-droid SSH apps, then a link to a reddit post, and then a link to JuiceSSH on the Play store.

I can reproduce this by searching for “Snapchat fdroid,” but not “Snapchat f-droid.”

“Snapchat hdroid” also suggests “Snapchat Android” though, so it doesn’t seem targeted against f-droid specifically

What you speak of does not appear to be the case.

https://i.imgur.com/3R6JzvB.png

The search results even gave me the correct name of the app in f-droid that is named differently. (firefox > fennec)

It’s depressing that wokest of woke users(including myself) still use Google to find a link or at most DDG which is just a wrapper to Google Search.

DDG isn't a wrapper around google.

Also, I want to tell you it gets better, I had problems getting sleep too for nearly a decade and it started really catching up with me as I entered my thirties (appetite, energy and cognitive issues for example). Turning screens off, limiting stimulants, not partying as much and keeping a regular wake up time _really_ helped me.

Best of luck to you.

You took that too literally [1]

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke

Worked fine here.

https://i.imgur.com/2vWBEG4.png

Does Aurora do anything for apps that are marked device-exclusive, for example Half Life 2?

Interesting that that google search only gave me spam for 1.5 pages. Wikipedia being at the bottom of the second page. (I use F-Droid, I was just curious. Usually a DuckDuckGo user. Search done from Germany)

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