There are other Android stores. Amazon ran one for the longest time. Many brands have their own app stores as well.
replyIt's the app publishers defaulting to Google that's the biggest issue.
At least WhatsApp has an official APK download, most apps don't.
That said, Google will still let you update apps without being signed in. Hold the Play Store icon to open the quick action menu. From there you can go to "my apps" and update all of the apps on your phone, bypassing the login prompt. Not great, but a workaround that should do the trick while Aurora finds another way to hack their way into the Play Store APIs.
The official download page for WhatsApp provides the apk. Other apps are problematic
replyApp verification means she can safely install apps from the Internet. The app developers can simply serve the apks from their own websites.
replyI am in the same boat. Keep in mind that you are trusting both google and meta. At least you can update whatsapp once every three months (for now)
replyIs it not possible to just download the updated whatsapp apk from some online source? That is the benefit of android after all, side loading is still possible relatively easily.
replyThe comments here specifically about WhatsApp are weird because WhatsApp download page links to the app store but also provides an APK right there
replyI'll be your random online source if you want. Just give me a few days to work on an APK for you to download and install.
replyPeople download apks from pirate sites and install them all the time, I dont think this is much different
replyHell yeah they do. I should know.
replyHow do you plan to get Meta's private signing key so Android will allow it as an update?
replyI’ll take the same approach Smarsh/TeleMessage uses to load modified WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram APKs on U.S. federal agency devices.
replyGrandma doesn’t care if it looks like an update or not.
There are whatsapp cracked apks which actually work as whatsapp... and they have "extras", and I would never install it, although I have seen it installed
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