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Comment by littlecranky67 | Hacker News Reader

It always was this bad. Google has no interest in a 'Show only apps without Ads and IAP' filterbutton on the Appstore. It would be implemented in a heartbeat and greatly improve the UX, but hurt sales. But hey, on Android you should know that you are the product (grass in iOS Land is not much greener though)

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They do, but it is well hidden.

You need to have Play Games installed. On the home page, scroll all the way down until "Dive deeper" section (or do a search), then you have choice between:

- Trending/New

- Premium/Free install

- Ads/No ads

- In-app purchases/No in-app purchases

and other categories

On Android you can side load whatever you want at any time including exclusively FOSS if you want, so no, you're not necessarily the product there. On Google's store specifically, sure

You have to load a custom ROM if you don't want to be tracked without your consent. You have a crumb more freedom on Android, that's all.

You can simply not sign into a Google account, and Android lets you turn off more tracking than iOS, which won't even let you get your location without telling Apple. No need to install a custom ROM.

And then you won’t have maps, Gmail, …

On iOS you can have the above without giving them your location 24/7

FYI, Google maps works without you needing to sign in (iirc it doesn't even need Play services, so it works with de-googled custom ROMs). Though this is an exception rather than the norm.

If you want to use an inferior Gmail client similar to the iOS Mail app, you can simply access Gmail using a third party mail client on Android exactly the same way.

The difference is you don't have to give your location to anybody on Android, while Apple makes you give them your location. You don't have to tell anybody that you installed an app on Android, while Apple knows every app you've installed and when you used each one.

The problem is that you can't easily find nice apps that you even want to install. E.g. if you want to install a Sudoku game, good luck finding one that isn't filled with ads and popups. But the sad thing is that there are some, you just can't find them!

Simon Tatham's Puzzles include Sudoku.

True, but the topic was Appstore user experience. If you know what App you want it becomes hundred times easier.

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