Hacker News Reader

Comment by jfoerste | Hacker News Reader

I've given up on custom launchers altogether because their proper support for gesture navigation breaks regularly. Nova support blamed this on missing apis, caused by manufacturer error (or intention?). Either way, custom launchers don't seem compatible with mainstream usage anymore.

View on HN

I assume you use Xiaomi or other chinese device. Those are the only ones that break navigation on purpose.

They tie essentials with the spyware so it would be nearly impossible to get rid of it without gimping the device.

I already forgot most of the details, but afaik even xiaomi apk installer has meta and bytedance trackers, in addition to like 20 more. Their mostly useless "Security" app has like 60 trackers (Includes even yandex ;) ). And you can't even really get rid of it.

Oh interesting. I was considering getting a Chinese phone soon (a vivo x200 Ultra), this really changes things. Is there somewhere I can read more about this?

They just replace sending everything to Google and/or Samsung with sending everything to Google and/or Xiaomi. Not much of a difference.

That's in addition to send everything to Google. You're still using Play services and Google apps.

Several years ago I got my Mum an Infinix phone. The default UI was painful, just really full on adware. I would change the launcher, but they kept changing it back every couple of days. One day I tried changing the default messaging app, a message popped up saying "Play Fair!" and changed the app back to the spyware-ridden default. I couldn't believe the gall! Stopped using cheap Chinese brands after that, though I doubt Oneplus would be as bad.

There are some known bugs even on Pixels (I, for instance, can't always open my Recents menu when using Nova)

An example: https://issuetracker.google.com/u/0/issues/296108449?pli=1

The original Pixel system also has this problem. ~20% of times opening the Recent Apps drawer shows empty, grayed-out rectangles in the place where the recent apps should appear, and they are not even touchable elements.

https://piunikaweb.com/2024/01/15/recent-apps-button-not-wor...

How such a glaring bug could slip through the cracks of "the iPhone of Androids"? No idea, but it suggest very poor QA.

Worse still, that bug on an essential feature of the phone (which older Android phones even had a physical button to invoke it) has been around for more than a year. Literally nobody at Google has yet sat down and checked the Jira ticket to fix an "if ()" somewhere in the code causing the bug.

Not that I'm a fan of spyware, but isn't this effectively barking at the wind. We're either getting Google's approved spyware, Samsung's approved spyware, or <insert shady> spyware. Sure, we all implement blocks, and things like blocking VPNs and the like.... but the reality is also IP (not DNS) based for tier two of getting around blocks, in applications that they solve the dns blocking issue.

Combine this with the common method of literally fetching static files with updated IPs from AWS IPs, github gists, and other "safe" static hosts... Ultimately, your device connects to the internet, and you become the product.

It's a bad idea to give in to the incompetence or malice of manufacturers, and let them win.

And it is very much that. I just discovered Nova and installed it on my new Lenovo tablet, where they have a setting for changing the launcher. No matter, their old launcher just keeps on starting, fighting Nova and making it glitch out.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com