[yunohn]

While I sympathize with the general negative outrage towards this change, I truly believe that people here fail to empathize with the mainstream users of Android phones.

I personally have seen every single older relative and non-tech friend, end up installing bloateare, spyware, and malware inadvertently - because they have no idea how anything in the tech domain works. And given the widespread popularity of Android (globally 70% vs iOS at 30% market share) and even moreso in lower income demographics, it also leads to rampant piracy of obviously non-essential apps like games and streaming (eg Spotify). In fact, even here on HN, almost everyone who has given their parents an iPhone has extolled the virtues of a secured AppStore/device and the peace of mind it brings.

While there may someday be a way to support both the average user and the HN power user, we are not there yet. It’s hard for me to outright reject Google/Android attempts to secure people’s devices.

[Zak]

The only time I've actually seen Android malware in the wild, it was because my mother installed a homescreen flashlight toggle widget from the Play Store that also displayed ads on the lockscreen. That was forbidden under Play Store rules, but there it was. I replaced it with something from F-Droid.

The Play Store still has a problem with shady apps years later. If Google wants to be more like Apple, they should start with better curation in their own store.

[rtsil]

They can lock down the Play store completely, that's what 99% of people and the people most vulnerable to malware are using. The problem is extending that to F-Droid and other alternative services.

[chrismorgan]

I’ve seen a fair bit of bloatware, spyware and what I’d count as malware on people’s Android phones. Every last piece of it has come with the OS or from the Play Store.