You're still using it, so they're gonna keep doing it.
Aside from the ads, you also have to sift through all of the crappy clones and shovelware to actually find something useful.
This was my exact experience a couple of days ago when I was trying to find a CSV viewer.
You know things are bad when your search for a CSV viewer looks like the back of a CVS receipt.
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.aurora.store/
F-droid for open source apps, Aurora Store for all the Play Store apps. You're welcome :)
isn't aurora store broken though
It is. Those fake accounts that Aurora Store uses stop working randomly. I learned the hard way to never rely on Aurora Store ever again and just use sandboxed Play Store on GrapheneOS.
You can use aurora with your own account
I dont install apps too often, so i just use a new throwaway when I download a new apo
How do you make throwaways for that, does this not require a new gmail account which may require phone number now too? Serious question, I know people are making throwaway gmail accounts, but I have no clue how.
In my experince, kind of. You can log in with your Google account and it works fine, but that negates most of the privacy benefits. Alternatively, only the search is broken with anonymous login, so you can set Aurora as the app to open play.google.com links and open them from your browser and it downloads and updates like normal.
it fails to fetch app details when I open a link in aurora store though
Not here, i use it regularly for updates and install some apps. Just checked and updated some apps.
PS: I'm using a created account.
Yikes. That is horrible. How can an upper level exec look at that and say: Yes! That's exactly what I was looking for!
90% of that page is revenue generation, they'd be happy to increase that number! You only need a few pixels to see what you actually want to do.
Money
They look at their fat paychecks + golden parachutes and say: Yes! That’s exactly what I was looking for!
You don't... You don't think any exec cares about user experience, do you? Well, they do, but only to the extent that everything they do is just below our threshold for leaving in outrage.
They use an iPhone
they don't care, as long as the users are captured and unable to switch to something else. and unlike with iOS, they have the figleaf of side-loading to protect themselves, even though 90% of users won't pursue it. so pressure from the EU will be minimal even as the user experience continues to degrade
I try to avoid using the official app as much as possible, usually manage with Aurora store, thats why it stood out to me how bad it has become of late when I just went to update my game. Not shocking, but disheartening.
Like others have said I too gave up on Play Store a long time ago. If I need an app it comes from Github, XDA, F-Droid etc. Obtainium for updates
For the past two weeks or so, I've also been seeing an ad in the search interface without actually typing anithing.
Me too. The exact same app. I rarely open the play store with other app stores existing but good lord this is bad.
Yeah, F-droid is my default.
And I thought the iOS App Store was bad … This is on another level.
iOS is bad when it comes to trying to find apps that aren't trying to shove subscription plans. They seem to push it like youtubers begging you to like and subscribe. No 'Contains ads' notice either, so it was the first time I discovered that talking video ads exist.
Wow it looks like I haven't used the playstore for a long time now... I guess I install app from a link in a web browser or github page or something, but searching and browsing the playstore I have not done in years.
Yeah precisely what I went through also, I have f-droid, Aurora store, even obtainium for those apps you usually get updates directly on their GitHub pages, going back to the Playstore has been a eye opener.
It's awful. I would never go there to discover an app. I download most apps these days by searching for them from my launcher and then clicking the link to search the playstore for that keyword.
Doesn't appear to happen to me, probably some kind of glitch https://postimg.cc/CdqZRDt1
Might be, I have reduced the number of ad columns by one, with this latest screenshot. Not getting the same result as you. Then again, that could be because my android version is older and such.
Yeah but you got the large video body from the game you searched for. Seems like this is much better.
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