Even simple apps nowadays have become subscription only. Whilst I used to pirate most stuff in the past, but if the app in question is a small one time purchase, it’s not bad considering you don’t need to sideload updated apk’s from Mobilism each time a new version is released (looks at some great cheap apps like Pano Scrobbler).
However, the trend has shifted towards the other side with everything from video recording apps(AZ Recorder), Weather apps(Today Weather) and Battery monitoring apps(Battery guru) offering subscriptions. Some have a high one time purchase option but some like the latter don’t.
Battery Guru is an example of enshittification. If phones still came with removable batteries and companies supported them, then for the price of say, a 4 year subscription to the app, I could have just gotten a new replaceable battery. It’s not like the app will magically stop my battery from degrading.
Whilst I have done piracy ( and still pirate stuff like films because no alternative, screw you Netflix), I tried to go the legal route for some apps since then updation and management of them becomes easier. But with the subscription scourge, I doubt devs are going in the right direction.
I stay away from any subscription like that. It works like credit cart debt: you pile it and in no time you bleed money like no tomorrow.
I understand the need of the Dev for a reasonably guaranteed flow of money, specially for online services, but also keep a software house going cost money.
But I am free to choose where not to put my money.
I kinda disagree on the weather app subscription model.
The API usage cost devs a fair whack depending on the sources they scrape from and while I’ve never used Today Weather, I have used FlowX (formerly WeatherBomb) for ages and the free version has no crap / ads/ nag pages with basic radar models available, but I decided to subscribe since it (besides supporting the dev) gives me high resolution radars for longer time-spans. And since I’m an outdoor worker too I thought it best to be on top of the weather.
But overall I do agree some of the forced “subscribe or ads” model can die in a fire.
Today Weather is decent otherwise, has multiple sources as options and a clean, somewhat customizable UI. It also has a proper Wear OS app with complications support.
Yeah I checked it out and it seems nice with all the other info not available in FlowX such as sunrise/sunset times etc in a Material theme. But I like FlowX simply for its information density and accuracy, latter being my most favourite thing since I can switch between high res models and predict myself if I need freezer pantie time/weather proofs.
I’ve been downloading more and more FOSS apps either from GitHub or F-Droid. I’ve been trying to avoid anything Google or from the Play Store.
Like others have said, I don’t mind paying a subscription if there’s a service on the backend that I find useful, such as SoundCloud or Burner.
Even then, I’m thinking I might end my SoundCloud subscription. I use it and Spotify to get listening suggestions but I’m hoping to find a better way to find music I might like but don’t know anything about.
the offline gps app that I use and absolutely love I initially pirated for my iphone 3, then for my samsung galaxy vibrant and then actually bought and bought extras. I love this app.
then a few years ago they offered more features that I found useful but put them behind a subscription instead of buying them as a premium option as before and I don’t like that. I still get to keep the options I bought, but any future add-ons forces me to subscribe and I’m not doing that.
honestly it might push me to see if it’s possible to to pirate an app I already paid for to get any new features I may find useful.
Reminds me somewhat of the Pocketcasts app. It had a one time purchase option once but then switched to a subscription tier instead. Ironically, if Google Podcasts were alive and being developed, then no one would have any need for Pocketcasts since the former had desktop playback and Google would have developed a first party Wear OS app as well(like Pocketcasts).
However, as is evident, Google killed the app and YT Music is not at all built for podcasts. If it categories as a podcast app, then it is the single worst I have seen for podcasts.
I had the pocket cast app but never paid for it. The only reason I kept it was due to my listen history. When I moved to antennapod, I exported the file and learned that it did not export listen history, and their website says that it’s not a high priority.
Probably because they want to keep you in their app.
So I manually moved my listen history.
I honestly don’t know what Pocketcasts folks are working on. Their forum has lists of issues where the official Wear OS app lacks so many features, doesn’t sync properly and apparently can’t run fluidly on my Galaxy Watch 6 even [Like how much memory does it need? Gnome on Linux probably is more resource efficient than their Wear OS app].
Let me guess: Sygic
When Sygic initially introduced their Android Auto integration, they put it behind a $50 paywall. I’d invested in that app multiple times because I liked it as an alternative to Google Maps, but asking me to pay that much just for AA was incredibly over the top.
I refuse to subscribe to apps. Devs doing so for no good reason get 1 star, and I delete the app.
Screw em.
Now, if an app has a back end, or has to host a resolver (Resilio Sync, Tailscale, etc), or provide other necessary services, that’s different.
Running a business works better if you have a steady flow of income. I don’t blame them for trying.
But I vote with my wallet.
I stick to open source apps more and more, and not only for the lack of subscriptions.
I don’t know where you’re getting Pano Scrobbler from. But I install quite a few apps through Obtainium. You can paste the link to e.g. the github page and it will automatically install and update your app. Obtainium is on Fdroid or you can get it from github aswell.
I use Obtanium actually since my main mobile browser is Iceraven which isn’t on F-Droid by default. [It supports sideloading extensions that official Firefox doesn’t].
IIRC, Pano Scrobbler is free but has a premium version as well on Google Play. I scanned through their Github and as of August 2024, the dev was working on implementing payment features without Play integration [like donating to the app and then getting a key for it which will be validated against license servers]. I used to sideload Premium variant of Pano Scrobbler before from Mobilism.
