Comment by Borealid

2 months ago

When a user visits a play.google.com URL Google wants to be able to show either an "install" or a "launch" button contingent on whether the app is already installed.

In other words, blame Google product management.

14 comments

Borealid

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Jach  2 months ago

I don't buy this. Google has this information on their backend, they don't need to query any local state. Indeed, when I visit a play.google.com URL, google checks if my browser is logged in or not. If it is not, the default is "Install" no matter what. If I do have a session, then it's either "Install" if I don't have it installed, or "Install on more devices" if I do have it installed.

  • NoahZuniga  2 months ago

    This is true, but if they didn't allow this permission for other browser apps that would be anti-competitive.

lurking_swe  2 months ago

this doesn’t make sense and sounds like an excuse IMO.

Instead of the browser enumerating all apps, why can’t it check when you visit a page if the current page (ONLY the current page) is installed as an app?

  • jerbear4328  2 months ago

    How would the OS know if the app that the browser is querying about is actually the current page? For all the OS knows, the user might be quickly visiting a ton of play.google.com pages for the top 1000 apps on the app store.

    • lurking_swe  2 months ago

      > How would the OS know if the app that the browser is querying about is actually the current page?

      Maybe i’m missing something, but it sounds like it would be easy for google to support this functionality by letting developers configure this in their app “bundle”. A property that tells the OS “my app is related to domain example.com”. Make it an array of domains if you must.

      4 replies →

catigula  2 months ago

A minor UX difference doesn't really feel like a great case for reducing user privacy, it makes me a little concerned about priorities... which I already was, really.