Anyone else think the play store has had such a constant decline to the point where you can barely find an app without being flooded with ads. I pretty much only use f droid at this point because the quality of apps is just higher
They used to have a nice obvious detail page for every app, now I get some small entry, a bunch of other apps that I might also want to install (spoiler, I don't), and it's harder to see useful information.
Do they really think I've gone to the Play Store to install my bank's app, but I might also want to install a different bank's app?
Dear Amazon, I bought a toilet seat because I needed one. Necessity, not desire. I do not collect them. I am not a toilet seat addict. No matter how temptingly you email me, I'm not going to think, oh go on then, just one more toilet seat, I'll treat myself.
One thing in Google's defence (I know...) is that it may be the makers of those other apps successfully optimising their apps search terms and SEO tags and so on, so that they appear when the user has searched for a different app.
Obviously it's still on Google for relying too much on an algorithm that doesn't prioritise the app name enough, but people gaming the system doesn't help either.
I had an app that did a simple job, and worked flawlessly for more than a year. Then it suddenly started putting display-filling ads in my message feed. I looked things up, and learned that the app has been bought by some online shopping profitteer company, and not only spews ads, but also collects all kinds of data all of a sudden.
If that does not describe a "shitty app", I don't know. One Star Review (would have given 0 stars if possible), and instant uninstall.
Yeah, at some point, I was experimenting with basically firewall apps to prevent tracking and realized that around 99% of apps on the Play Store have tracking built-in. As I later learned, that's because Google heavily encourages it in their app development tooling. Either way, F-Droid it is for me.
Don't think many people are aware of the app called App Finder. It's really great for finding new apps, has way better search filters and doesn't require Google account whatsoever. Exists in Playstore and as an APK from their own website.
Ah, the "play store". Happy playground of spending! Starting off on the wrong foot with just the name. Of course its a trashed up ad spew bucket and dark pattern shitehole.
Not only it's a nightmare but also invasive. I don't want Google Play scanning my apps constantly. Play protect has proven time and time again to not be very effective at stopping malicious apps. Turn that shit off.
Call me a control freak but what I usually do is update my apps, turn off internet access to the Google play store and only grant internet access back to it when I decide I want to update my apps.
Ads being flooded was expected to happen. It was only a matter of when they were going to start bloating the play store.
Remember, companies don't care about YOU. They are only there to make profit.
As you said, F-Droid is the way to go. But if you want to browse the Play store without ads, use Aurora. It's an open-source client for Google play that doesn't show ads and doesn't even require you to log in with Google.