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Comment by solarkraft | Hacker News Reader

Well that's cool for users with rooted Android devices, which are currently blocked from logging in with an obscure error message.

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Just root with Magisk and add the app to the DenyList. Poof.

Can you please explain what this means? Is this a way to bypass rooted device detection aka attestation?

This will only work until Google starts mandating TEE attestation of bootloader status for SafetyNet.

Which will then be bypassed using some other way, just like every DRM so far ended up being cracked.

Sure, but can it be done in software, or will it require a scanning tunneling microscope?

It's not meant for mobile phones (who can install the Snapchat app already), clearly targeted for desktop users as a companion app

I wouldn't normally bring this up but in this case it's a significant oversight: Did you read the comment you've replied to?

Grandparent comment explicitly states a rooted android phone cannot install the Snapchat app.

Snap has ensured it cannot work on a rooted device (as bank apps also do) to make it difficult to mess with the binary and end up saving or harvesting temporarily viewable content like snaps of genitalia or whatever people use snap for.

> to make it difficult to mess with the binary and end up saving or harvesting temporarily viewable content

Which is funny because it's trivial without any modifications to the device (at least when I last used it). Just record the screen.

For extra points, record it while in airplane mode, then delete the app. Snap now has no idea and cannot tattle.

IIRC, screen recording or screenshotting will bubble an alert to the other party about what you've done, unless you disconnect from the network or some other shenanigans.

Of course, taking a regular old picture of the screen of a DRM'd device is still a thing in your own private home. DRM goes only so far, though deterrence does help to some extent I'll admit. Question is if we're willing to accept DRM'd devices following us around all day long so that we can have nudes via a not-e2ee messenger with slightly less risk of the other person sharing it.

About some other shenanigans if you really care about recording the screen you can use another phone or a camera, possibly on a tripod to keep it steady and the distance constant. That's lower quality than a screenshot but it's basically undetectable.

And how about running in a VM on a desktop? Does Snapchat allow that?

on my Pixel screen recording doesn't notify the other user.

Interestingly, my GF asked me a few hours before if I knew (I did in fact not) that users get a notification when you screenshot their stories from Instagram.

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