tinned_tomatoes

They're hoping you click through to their dedicated article about App Lock here. That's what Android and tech journalism is these days, blatant attempts to get as many clicks as possible.

Basically it's a way to lock an app behind biometrics so only you can open it. The submitted article is specifically about those apps having their notifications treated as sensitive. That's literally it. It could've been in the original article about App Lock, but y'know - gotta get those clicks.

Why post this again? This is from the 12th of December...

Why does every submission on the android lemmy site contain various anti-google and anti-android sentiments? This is a very bizarre and miserable fanbase.

You seem stressed about this...

I don't want to piss about with icon packs and custom launchers these days. That was very much a "12 years ago" kind of thing for me.

The icon shapes are already customisable on the stock Google Launcher and I rotate them to keep things looking fresh.

You seem troubled. Have you considered therapy?

This setting doesn't affect the app drawer, it's just for the home screen which are apps you place manually to be fair - I like the consistency.

It's not just photos though.

I have a folder of apps and app shortcuts here. Most of these apps support the dynamic icon theming, but the shortcuts use other icons that clearly don't. So yeah, before this update this folder looked a bit uneven as the app shortcuts were coloured, but now it looks uneven because the app shortcuts look weird and different.

I'll get over it... 😅

Well considering the app shortcuts/deep-link shortcuts aren't app icons maybe Google shouldn't have enabled Material You on them? Even if the app supports it by providing a greyscale bitmap, most of the app shortcuts icons don't so now if you use app shortcuts heavily (which I do) your home screen is now ugly.

And I don't want to lose the app icon theming just to fix this. I feel like this could've been a beta option so I can choose to force it or not.

Poor wording on my part.

Theres a feature in Android since Android 12 that you can enable which forces app icons to use the greyscale icon (which all developers must provide going forward), and then theming it to your OS colours (Material You).

Until now if an app didn't have that greyscale bitmap icon it would show the original full-colour icon instead. The latest update means if you enable the feature ALL your apps, including those deep link shortcuts, will be forced to colour-match.

So you don't see this unless you turn it on, but you can't get back to the pre-16QPR2 state where most apps follow the scheme and some apps are left as their original icons.

Google has made an important concession. The company says it is now developing an "advanced flow that allows experienced users to accept the risks of installing software that isn't verified." This installation flow will include safeguards to protect people who are being coerced into installing a dangerous app, or tricked by a scammer, along with "clear warnings to ensure users fully understand the risks involved."

It's just going to be an evolution of the existing toggle, with a bit more scary language around it.

From the same article just before your quote

Google has made an important concession. The company says it is now developing an “advanced flow that allows experienced users to accept the risks of installing software that isn’t verified.” This installation flow will include safeguards to protect people who are being coerced into installing a dangerous app, or tricked by a scammer, along with “clear warnings to ensure users fully understand the risks involved.”

Then the article goes on to say "Google is also working on...."

It's clear from the article with basic reading comprehension that Google is working on multiple concessions here, one being a power user settings toggle to bypass verified APKs, and another for hobbyist developers to verify their APKs.

This is also ignoring the fact that ADB installs was never going away as part of this change. You could still run an ADB command to install an unverified APK, and that can be done remotely via a computer or via the various terminal apps available. Someone even wrote an app that does it for you.

But sure, carry on with the FUD and accuse me of "needing my hand held" using computers when you can't even read and comprehend an article properly...