Hey Google, what happened to all the fun?

https://shanetully.com/2024/07/hey-google-what-happened-to-all-the-fun/

by S201 • 2 years ago

82 20 2 years ago

shanetully.com

woah• 2 years ago

Google deleted a guys app that he wrote 14 years ago that tells you if it's Tuesday

joezydeco• 2 years ago

Should have added adversiting. Then Google would allow it.

But, yeah, I miss the old Google too.

el_memorioso• 2 years ago

Add a settings page that allows you to set the day you want to ask about. Maybe include some more icon resources to reflect the set day.

uejfiweun• 2 years ago

Google is a conventional company. They may not have intended to become one, but now they are among the most conventional of all companies - layoffs, cost cutting, offshoring, killing products left and right, I could go on. It's a goddamn shame.

Iolaum• 2 years ago

It is a consequence of the Anna Karenina principle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Karenina_principle

SoftTalker• 2 years ago

Any company that gets big enough to start having policies for everything is automatically no longer fun. The people who get hired to make policies are not fun people.

spoonfeeder006• 2 years ago

A prime example of that was demonstrated by The South Butt, a clothing store that was started by a 16 yo guy

Winkelmann Jr. claimed the company was a parody of The North Face, an American outdoor product company.[4] In August 2008, The North Face sent a cease and desist letter to Winkelmann threatening to sue him if he did not "cease all promotion and sales of South Butt products and abandon his trademark registration application."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_South_Butt

zkirill• 2 years ago

I hope that this is having an opposite effect where people are starting to step outside of the walled gardens to look for "the good stuff". Google pulled this shit with us too a few years ago by attempting to force us to share our signing keys. We ignored them and told our users to download the APK from our website instead which they happily did. Then, Google bumped the minimum API version and new versions of Android refused to launch apps that were not updated. Our users found workarounds before we did, by using some kind of obscure adb command. The new API bump introduced some needless asinine changes that seemed to exist just to please some PM at Google. Enough is enough.

fatihpense• 2 years ago

App stores sometimes bring great discoverability and revenue opportunities. But if you don't have close connections working in related big companies, don't depend your future on it.

I categorically erased developing mobile apps from my work/dreams after my bad experience:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37903489#37911184

I also advise against it to people around me with my limited ability.

neilv3• 2 years ago

You should ensure your app provides a stable, engaging, responsive user experience.

What does this mean?

user63900• 2 years ago

What’s written…

neilv3• 2 years ago

Maybe it will be easy to think about if we start to factor it:

1. What does "You should ensure your app provides a stable [...] user experience" mean?

2. What does "You should ensure your app provides [an] [...] engaging [...] user experience" mean?

3. What does "You should ensure your app provides a [...] responsive user experience" mean?

And when "apps" have obviously been pushed to largely supplant the open Internet, why is a single company entitled to gatekeep on the above criteria, for whether you can participate?

FooBarBizBazz• 2 years ago

I agree that it's weirdly euphemistic Californianese.

Two we can translate, I think:

"stable user experience" = "doesn't crash"

"responsive user experience" = "isn't laggy or slow"

It'd be nice if they just said what they meant like normal human beings, but both of those are reasonable requirements

(We can pick apart why they talk like that -- it's about implying that everything stems from their "care" for users; it's to seize moral high ground, but of course the "care" is Focaultian. I digress.)

But what's the third one? "engaging user experience" = "not boring" = "holds users attention" = "entertains users". That doesn't seem like a reasonable expectation, and in fact could be called the problem with smartphones -- everything is designed to be addictive. Is a hammer engaging? That's not the point; it's useful sometimes.

neilv3• 2 years ago

One way to avoid this is to embrace open standards.

If you're going to put your stuff into one of the proprietary phone/tablet app stores today, it is important to make sure you can look yourself in the mirror and say, "I know this is probably a bad way for society, but I think I can get more money this way, at least in the short term." So at least you know what you're doing.

The longer that people sell out, the harder it will be for society to dig itself out.

janalsncm• 2 years ago

Just another example of huge companies ruining platforms that used to be nice. Maybe I can make a suggestion: the open web has always been there.

If you make apps for Google, they get to ruin your day at any point in the future. If you put up a website, you own it. You control it. It will work as long as the code still runs, and you never need to update a “manifest number” or whatever.

If you want it to be an icon, create a bookmark and drag it onto your phone’s Home Screen. In fact I do this anyways with some websites that do have apps because the website works and that’s good enough.

The same goes for Twitter vs the Fediverse. Do you know what already is a network of media servers that connect over a common protocol? The internet. Create a blog. It works forever.

buffington• 2 years ago

I would have fought the "has no function" angle instead of suggesting it was "just for fun."

In actual fact, it does have function. I have personally asked "is it Tuesday?" more than zero times in my life. This app functions perfectly in helping answer that question.

Seems no different than a weather app in terms of its function - it communicates real time information about the day.

throwaway2046• 2 years ago

Consider publishing on F-Droid; the platform is open and decentralized, plus it's already gaining some traction outside tech-centric communities.

sliken• 2 years ago

But requires handing over your app signing keys, right?

frays• 2 years ago

Great and fun read, thanks.

6510• 2 years ago

The solution is to create a separate section called "the magic forest" and put all the silly things there so that it doesn't clutter up the video games, corporate garbage and the other 5 apps everyone uses.

Hey Google, what happened to all the fun?

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