Ask HN: How to stop Google Play Store from replacing apps from other app stores

Posted by daggersandscars on Thursday July 14, 2022 @02:31PM
from the ask-hn dept.

I had Amazon Kindle installed from the Google Play Store. Amazon removed book purchases from the Google Play version of Kindle. One can still buy books from the Amazon Appstore version of Kindle.

* I uninstalled Kindle from Google Play

* I installed the Amazon Appstore

* I installed Kindle from Amazon Appstore

Direct book purchasing restored.

Every few weeks, the Google Play store uninstalls Kindle from the Amazon Appstore and installs its version.

Being able to use multiple app stores is (imo) Android's primary appeal. If Google Play can arbitrarily replace apps with its own, that's a serious problem.

How do I stop this from happening?

I have verified this -- when it happens, going to Amazon Appstore -> My Apps lists Kindle (Not from Amazon).

( 7 comments | 32 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: How to stop Google Play Store from replacing apps... by zinekeller on Thursday July 14, 2022 @03:47PM (#32100668)

Not a satisfactory answer, but you could disable auto-updates for Kindle from the Google Play. IIRC the Google Play and the Amazon versions use the same package name (com.amazon.kindle) and signing keys, so Google Play thought that you have an equivalent app.

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Re:Ask HN: How to stop Google Play Store from replacing apps... by daggersandscars on Thursday July 14, 2022 @04:37PM (#32101138)

Thanks! I will give this a try.

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Re:Ask HN: How to stop Google Play Store from replacing apps... by millzlane on Thursday July 14, 2022 @03:03PM (#32100173)

My wild guess is that the Amazon Kindle app was preinstalled by your device maker. That's why I think it keeps installing that version when the apps auto update. You can try disabling auto update. There used to be a way you could extract the .apk using apk extractor and then resign it with APK signer orijinal and android would think it was a different app. I'm not sure if that is still the case though.

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Re:Ask HN: How to stop Google Play Store from replacing apps... by daggersandscars on Thursday July 14, 2022 @03:13PM (#32100310)

Thanks for your response! It's a Samsung S22 Ultra, purchased unlocked.

As far as I can tell, Kindle was not pre-installed by Samsung, as it would have been preinstalled from the Galaxy Store.

The version of Kindle that keeps replacing the Amazon Appstore version is specifically from Google Play.

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Re:Ask HN: How to stop Google Play Store from replacing apps... by raninepaths on Thursday July 14, 2022 @11:00PM (#32104155)

Its not google play store forcibly replacing the app. I think its when automatic update of google playstore is happening to your kindle app that its getting replaced. Just disable automatic update for in play store for.

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Re:Ask HN: How to stop Google Play Store from replacing apps... by sanderr on Thursday July 14, 2022 @02:54PM (#32100051)

Same hapens with Fairemail if you install it from Github.

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Re:Ask HN: How to stop Google Play Store from replacing apps... by david_allison on Thursday July 14, 2022 @05:25PM (#32101640)

Get in touch with the maintainers if it's causing a problem, they probably don't realise and it's typically very easy to perform a parallel release under a different applicationId.

GPL'ed code, but so is FairEmail:

https://github.com/ankidroid/Anki-Android/blob/7082f6ee93ed1...

Most of the relevant code is in parallel-package-name.sh

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