There is no reason to require this setting for users who aren’t posting live videos.
“Meta IS NOT LISTENING TO YOUR CAMERA, MICROPHONE, OR NETWORK CONNECTIONS! REEEE!!”
It is actually pretty sad
Although to be far they have way more effective ways of surveillance
I installed it earlier this year on android. But it wouldn’t let me sign in or browse without syncing my contacts from my phone.
So I uninstalled it.
That is the healthy choice
Yup, that’s the correct reaction.
There is a metric somewhere that shows installation and then instant uninstall. I hope it brings sadness to soulless hearts.
Hostage permissions
This is why I really like grapheneos. They’ve created scoped permissions, so the operating system tells the application Yes you can see this thing, but it’s empty. Right now they’ve implemented scoped storage, and scoped contacts. So if it tries to extort you to see your entire contact list you can limit it to an empty list, a very limited list, or everything if you don’t care
Sadly Is pixel only… right?
Yup
I’m using it on a Fairphone 5 since a while. Works flawless
But which version? Plus, I’ve learned todsy that Samshit locks the battery at 80% with unlocked BL… Even if I’m using it on my dev phone, 20% is A LOT
What the hell, why?
Probably longevity? Maybe heat?
Charging the last 20% is really hard on the battery. Also, Samsung has a history with ahem exploding batteries they overcharged, and exploding earbuds would be quite a meme.
I don’t know if it’s true https://lemmy.world/comment/11865606
Unfortunately not in NA.
And no tap to pay or wallet, so I can’t switch :(
https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm
I checked, yeah you’re right, nobody else supports scoping
Oh! I meant grapheneOS, It looked interesting and I wanted to install it on my phone
It’s only guaranteed to work with pixels. It still works with other phones, but with varying degrees of success and obviously no official support.
Oh… If there’s no official support and problems, I’m not going to install it
Yea, but it’s a good phone to target, Pixels are one of the few remaining manufacturers that freely let you unlock the BL and probably one of the last that is carried by nearly all major US carriers. OnePlus used to be another but iirc they’ve stopped selling on all carriers stores
Yes yes yes, you can buy any frequency-compatible phone you’d like from like Amazon, AliExpress, Best Buy, manufacturer store etc but that’s an expensive option for many as you have to front the entire purchase price with little exception.
So if you want a BL unlockable phone, purchased through a carrier to take advantage of the reduced financial load of payments instead of all up front, in the US…it’s pretty much just Pixels
I was interested because everyone keeps talking about it and I wanted to try it myself but it’s compatible only with pixels. I have a Samsung and I changed phone recently so I’m not going to buy it again. I don’t want to spend 600+ for a new phone + 2/300? (100?) for the buds but my next phone will be a pixel🤔
Why would you want to buy new buds?
Samsung buds? I know they have 100% features with Samsung devices, I don’t know if it works with other devices
Would be pretty shitty if they artificially didnt worked. It think it’s still an headphones that can be used even without the, I’m guessing, nice intégration with Samsung phone.
Disclaimer: I’ve never owned Samsung buds.
Honestly? I like the “switch between devices” sometimes I use the old phone then I switch to my main buuut… I hope they don’t do it
Oof, yea Samshits are the worst of the worst. They’re actively hostile to those who would dare want to use their phone how they see fit.
Even if the stars align and people are able to breakthrough the BL lockdown, Samshit phones are designed to blow an efuse and permanently lock the phone to 80% battery capacity just for a big ol fuck you
Never EVER buy Samshit phones if you can help it
So edgy. You’re a real badass, bro.
Uh what? For real? And that’s shit is even legal?! TIL! I’ll never buy another Samsung phone then
Take it with a grain of salt.
If it’s true, I’ll never buy it again, lf it’s not, I’ll never buy it again anyway
You can’t unlock the bootloader on carrier-locked Pixel phones; they need to be SIM unlocked in order for the “OEM Unlocking” option to be available.
Yes, but it’s far easier to obtain a SIM unlock than it is to unlock a BL from a manufacturer that just says “No” instead of “As long as it gets carrier unlocked”
I have a Pixel Fold purchased and (still) financed through T-Mobile that is BL unlocked and rooted. Most of the time they’ll override their SIM unlock requirements if you’ve had an account for awhile. Unsure about ATT, I’ve heard they’re 50/50. Verizon, ofc, are a bunch of bitches about it
Even Verizon? I’ve had a few phones from Verizon that were supposedly easy to root or whatever but they have that shit locked down tight.
I recently bought and then returned a used Verizon pixel 8 because I couldn’t unlock the bootloader or even add a non Verizon eSIM.
Verizon are a bunch of bitches about it, they’re as bad as Samshit. They’re a match made in hell tbh.
Of the major 3 carriers, it’s always been T-Mobile that’s the “most friendly” to tinkerers. Technically, you can’t unlock the BL until it’s been carrier unlocked, which TMO is generally OK about overriding their requirements as long as you’ve had an account for awhile
The unlockable bootloader is only a small part of the reason Graphene only works on Pixels. One of the main reasons is that Google actually maintains drivers and firmware updates for all of their components and releases them monthly (well, usually) unlike other vendors that are often one or more months behind. Many (most?) other phone brands simply don’t provide the security guarantees that Graphene desires.
There are GrapheneOS ports for other devices, and ROMs that take GrapheneOS features, but none that I know of have the security that GrapheneOS has.
Thank you for not saying that the bootloader comes unlocked. It doesnt.
I heard of scoped permissions before but didn’t know it could also zero the outputs of sensors to trick intrusive apps. That’s a neat feature set.
I really hope Apple implements scoped permissions sometime soon
Edit: lol I just realized the OP could press “Not Now” - though technically the app would then prevent posting stories still :/
This already exists in iOS with photos, and contacts are in iOS 18
I believe that there’s some app out there for Android that lets one create a spoofed environment for apps that demand certain permissions to function. Returns bogus data to them. Might require a rooted device, though.
goes looking
Yeah.
I think I’m thinking of XPrivacyLua, which requires Xposed, which in turn requires a rooted device.
EDIT: all that being said, I do think that if practicable, it is kind of an argument to use something other than Instagram, and more broadly, to try to keep use on a personal computer rather than phone, where it’s easier to deal with or avoid shennanigans like this.
Technically Graphene OS can do this
all meta’s apps are suck ngl. i hate the way i can’t paste image from clipboard in whatsapp chat without giving whatsapp permission to manage my storage.
It’s probably compressing or resizing before upload.
idk when this sh*t started but in the older versions (as far as i remember), whatsapp didn’t ask for this if the image was from my clipboard. that was one of the trick to not giving the permission to manage my files to whatsapp when sending images.
iOS plus Facebook
The “dream” combo
Consider pixelfed, the fediverse alternative to Instagram
I really like pixelfed, but it replaces what instagram was a decade ago, not what instagram is now.
Pixelfed is amazing for sharing photography type photos.
Instagram is now a photo sharing, video sharing, tiktok doomscrolling, messaging service, noticeboard in one.
I used to love Instagram 5-10 years ago. I despise today’s Instagram.
As an amateur photographer, I’m still hoping for a Flickr resurgence. Instagram is so restrictive.
I left it about two years ago. The tiktok style short videos are way too fucking addictive and bring near zero value to my day.
The official app won’t work with my instance (pixey.org). Pixeldroid does through
I wonder if saving the website as an app would work around this restriction?
This does appear to be a functional workaround atm (the mobile website via safari app allows me to post photos to stories) but the editor is severely gimped so you can’t resize images and such. Desktop version doesn’t seem to allow you to post stories at all. If I NEED to share something perhaps I’ll use this.
Instagram no longer allowed to be installed on my phone, how is that for a deal, Meta?
Then do that
Instagram and all Facebook products are invasive addictive malware
If they don’t already have rules about this, Google and Apple should update their store rules to prevent this crap.
Playing devil’s advocate here but there could be legitimate reasons to prevent features of an app if you don’t give the permissions.
Things like professional type apps that need geolocation to work (geofencing, photo geoloc) or because x big shot client wants to track their employees and you’re just forced to accept that unless you want to declare bankruptcy.
Definitely is a very hostile pattern though and there’s no reason for meta to do this shit…
It’s a new frontier in sourcing material for AI training…
I only use Instagram to look at the reels my family sends me, I don’t allow myself to use it for anything else because you can easily waste 2 hours and feel miserable afterwards. What I like about Lemmy is I can get through all new posts for the day in at most 20 mins and maybe learn about some interesting while I’m at it.
Yeah I use it to keep up with friends/family and have a private account— most people I know don’t post regular posts, only stories, so it’s actually quite easy for me to exhaust all the content I care about and then leave. The post feed is mostly ads for me since my friends don’t post. The ‘explore’ feed for me is mostly indian weddings and flood content for some unfathomable reason.
I set up Amazon Echo buds recently. I have no desire to use any of the Alexa crap on them and just wanted cheap, decent noise cancelling Bluetooth earbuds on prime day. You apparently can’t set them up without the Alexa app and like all the permissions. I downloaded it on an old phone that’s practically blank, set up the buds, and deleted the app. Once it’s set up you can use like regular Bluetooth earbuds. They wanted location all the time and a few others (microphone maybe?). Selecting only allow this time wouldn’t even work. I get it Bezos, u want my data, but fuck off u aren’t getting it.
You should look if it works with gadgetbridge. Maybe you can get some functionality back that the app had?
gee, guess i’ll just have to continue never using it, then…
I’ve wondered for quite a while if there was ever any truth to the rumors that Meta apps “listen” to people. It doesn’t make logical sense, as the OS should expose they are doing it. Unless they had API access to allow microphone access without triggering the microphone icon. These companies have had API access in the past, like when Uber had full screen display capture access, and Meta definitely has some agreements with the fruit company to access some kinds of data. Or, when iOS first introduced the location tracking symbol in the status bar, I was able to write a program that allowed gathering of location access without actually triggering the icon.
Most of the time, the events can be explained away by knowing how adtech works, like, I was drinking a beverage, a friend asked what it was, the next day I started getting ads for it.
In that case:
- They were on my wifi network
- They picked up their phone when they were asking about it and did an Internet search
- So once the GeoIP was cross-referenced across ad providers, the IP started being targeted for those ads, makes sense
Some stories I’ve heard are more strange.
It does make me wonder if it was true the whole time, but they now have to ask for permission.
Don’t use the platforms myself or I’d try and set up a test experiment.
In this case by hitting create post, it triggers the permissions for mic/camera because it tries to activate them.
As to why, it’s probably because they want you to create videos, so it defaults to that when trying to create a post. And then in there, you can go for a text post instead. But I don’t use Instagram so I don’t know if anyone who does can confirm that.
Good theory, I like it.
Relevant thread today - you would be a good person to test this seemingly unlikely theory!
