Next

To try and resolve the current Google Play Store / ToS issue, I am providing a couple of suggestions:

1. Develop and replace the current Google Play Store version of the Minds app (apk) with a chain loading styled app. This chain-loader only purpose is to download and install the original minds.com version (from the official minds.com repository).

2. Publish the chain-loader app to Amazon AppStore and F-Droid

For further information about the above suggestions, please review the following blog article.

Reference:

• https://www.minds.com/medworthy/blog/the-many-faces-of-the-minds-app-979482529691869184

changed title from (Suggested Feat): Google Play Store - App to (Suggested Feat): Google Play Store - Chain-Loader App

changed the description

added 0 - Urgent P - Platform T - Feature labels

It's against the app stores policy to provide means to download other APK's or to act as an alternative app store.

The next build (3.7.0) will resolve the 'auto-update' issue as our released versions will have a higher version number than the ones we submit to google play.

closed

@markeharding,
Could you please remember to tag the user that you are referring to (I did not see this comment until now due to the lack of notification, which was due to a lack of tagged usernames).

You stated that it is against the app stores (Google PlayStores) policy to provide means to download APK's from other providers (I wonder if this would be acceptable when considering federal competition legislation) but you also state that the next build (version) will resolve the "auto-update" issue due to providing a version that is newer then the one that is provided by Google's service (which seems to be a contradiction considering your first point).

I am wondering about the exact wording that Google LLC provides within their terms of service agreements which supports your first sentence (could you please quote the specific clauses or provide a URL to the actual ToS statement that supports your first sentence).

reopened

Re-opened by @medworthy's request. Point 1 may not be possible but point 2 is potentially something we could do to further distribute our App.