Nathan of Guardian: > > > On Tue, Dec 27, 2016, at 09:29 AM, Greg Troxel wrote: >> I also wonder if f-droid could grow a soft dependency feature, where >> installing an app could cause f-droid to offer to install a set of >> dependency apps. I really mean soft, in that one could say no, and >> obviously apps have to behave reasonably with the dependency app >> missing, but it could ease the UX. Actually, proprietary app stores >> could do this also. > > Google Play Services essentially works this way today, where you are > prompted to install or upgrade based on if you have it or not. While > there is no defined dependency specification, it is clear that Google > considers this an acceptable user experience to require of the masses. > > It would be great for F-Droid to lead the way with an actual defined > method for this. I agree it should also be soft, and apps should > gracefully degrade.
My guess is that a better and more Android-ish way to handle this would be for each app to handle checking for required apps, then triggering the install prompt. Putting such a feature into F-Droid means adding maintenance work that is separate from the app updates, and having F-Droid giving prompts for outdated dependencies would be very bad for usability. These dependences will have to be manually maintained by humans, and humans mess that kind of thing up a lot. Apps can already use market: links, and they'll work with Google Play, F-Droid and perhaps other app stores. What would be great to have are some design patterns around this functionality. The dialog that says "Install? Ok/Cancel" needs to be replaced. It could be like a header on the top of the main screen that says "Touch here to install Orbot" where it makes sense contextually. The app can then expose whatever functionilty works without the dependencies, or just show a screen saying "nothing works until you do this". I experiemented with this idea in LocationPrivacy: https://github.com/guardianproject/locationprivacy https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=info.guardianproject.locationprivacy .hc -- PGP fingerprint: EE66 20C7 136B 0D2C 456C 0A4D E9E2 8DEA 00AA 5556 https://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=vindex&search=0xE9E28DEA00AA5556 _______________________________________________ List info: https://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/listinfo/guardian-dev To unsubscribe, email: [email protected]
