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Comment by jonbell | Hacker News Reader

1) More spam on Android by far 2) Spotify not blocked

There’s a bit of religion happening in both directions. iOS has, objectively, fewer problems than Android in these regards and part of that are the policies.

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What do you mean by "spam on Android" though?

I don't get spam on my phone (well, SMS spam sometimes but that has nothing to do with the OS) and nobody I know does. Also, I keep hearing on HN that iOS doesn't split notifications into channels and you can't block just the ad notifications. Unlike on Android where I block the ads for Uber Eats, the only application that wants to spam me (but doesn't, since I can just disable ads).

App store spam

I think this would be a better argument if Apple wasn't so careless with what they accept on the App Store. There are scam apps, apps which try to trick users into accepting subscriptions, tonnes and tonnes of "casino for children" games, games which clearly try to trick children into spending their parents' money, etc.

If you think "app store spam" is a real thing, you've spent way too much time on app store.

I install apps that I need -- news, banking, podcast, email, Uber etc, usually from well known companies. A small amount of apps are lesser known but they have good reviews.

I don't think there is any fundamental difference from the Apple app store. Maybe do a check of yourself first.

> There’s a bit of religion happening in both directions. iOS has, objectively, fewer problems than Android in these regards and part of that are the policies.

When you say "objectively" I assume that this is something that has been measured and that there are reliable sources for this statement?

I would be really surprised. Anytime when I’ve searched for a feature (like DLNA sharing), and not for a specific app, I’ve got only very shitty spam apps in both stores. Even when I search for specific app, like GTA, the results deteriorate very quickly, in both stores.

The moment there are more than a very minimal / virtually non existing amount of spam and scam, it doesn't matter who has more, whatever control are in place don't work, at least not to the extant of "you must make massive concession to your rights on your own device to ensure we can do that".

That is my point of view, and to each their own I assume.

As for Spotify, yes technically it's not blocked, probably because they know that's a line they can't cross.

> iOS has, objectively, fewer problems than Android in these regards

You really need to outline clearly what "regards" you mean in that front, and objectively implies fact backed. I would disagree with that statement as-is.

iOS has a fraction of the userbase and developer activity of Android globally, which affects also the US market, from where it might seem dominant.

No wonder that explains the amount of ransomware garbage on Android devices out there: [0] and it is more prevalent on Android than iOS. [1]

[0] https://www.cloudsek.com/threatintelligence/copy-of-malware-...

[1] https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/09/22/apps-attack-risk

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