I asked a relative to look for RealVNC on the Play Store and install it. Once they were done, I asked them to fulfill a basic task inside RealVNC and they were really confused by my instructions. I took a look at their phone, lo and behold, they had installed a different app. I asked them to repeat the install procedure while I watched. They punched in “realvnc” in the search box, two identically formatted results appeared. Their finger instinctively clicked the Install button on the top result. It was an ad. 🤦♂️🤦♀️🤦
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Pffft, the young generation, not hardened by the 6 different download buttons on a torrent search engine… /s
This, but unironically. How can you be so blind to click on something called Zoho, when RealVNC (the thing you searched for) is right below it?
Google play shouldn’t confuse users just because some company pays more for ads
Google being evil and assholes doesn’t remove the fact that this person literally didn’t spend a second to check what they clicked.
Digital safety starts with everyone, despite if we need laws to regulate the asshole companies trying to mess with people’s lack of attention.
They didn’t click anything. This is just a post about the annoyance of ads.
Clearly many of the commenters here have not supported average smartphone users enough to know how they will blindly click the first thing that looks anything like what they think the technician is asking them to click. Remember, the average person does not have a laptop or desktop computer, they only have a phone (and only the one because they probably traded their old phone in with the carrier for a pittance when they got their current one), and they often do not have internet service at home and simply rely on mobile data from their unlimited data plan.
Is that really the average user? Especially not having internet service at home? I can reluctantly but relatively easily believe the “no computer” bit but, average or not, I don’t think I know anyone without some kind of non-mobile Internet.
Nobody in my wife’s family has a laptop. Not a single person. They are tech illiterate to the point where I’m not sure they know how to use a keyboard.
That’s probably not the average user either, but they certainly help to set the average as low as it truly is…
It’s entirely plausible that this is the case for your wife’s family and others, but it’s hard for me to imagine a household without at least one non mobile computer. However, I can.
Without non mobile internet, though? Again, I can imagine it … But it seems wrong.
It shouldn’t be so hard; I was around before the internet was prevalent. My life now involves constant internet access, though, so I guess it’s weird to me that some people have lives that don’t - and especially that that might be the average.
One must always remember the words of George Carlin, I suppose.
We use a fair few shared mobile phones at work and while it has WiFi / unlimited mobile data is used solely as an absence line number because some of my fellow colleagues don’t have home internet, actively disable their mobile data (because they use a SMS / Call package only), and really can’t get their head around “the nets”/Whatsapp and don’t, want to, either.
Which I agree with to an extent since Whatsapp can suck my plums too. They exist and quite a few of them apparently.
There is a bonus to this thou since I get to call them names because of their neanderthal ways…
They’re living the dream
t it’s hard for me to imagine a household without at least one non mobile computer. However, I can.
Everything is mobile, if you can lift.
To this average person, they have an unlimited plan because that’s what they sell you in the carrier store, and they go do a quick cost benefit and go “nah I don’t need to pay for another internet plan for my home when I have unlimited data on my phone” Mobile data has gotten good enough and cheap enough that they don’t have to care really.
I agree its very hard for us in tech to imagine. I had a similar discussion with one of my colleagues in IT who was in a similar state of disbelief (in this case it was a person who was recently fired who had been with the company for over 25 years and used his work email for a bunch of personal accounts because he “doesn’t have a personal email” a couple of us pointed out some of the thought processes and cost/benefit analysis one might make that can lead to that point)
This was the thought process I had after the episode. I pictured the average user, blissfully installing apps they didn’t search for, before trying again and installing what they needed. I bet a lot of those people leave such apps installed after the fact. And I don’t recall the current broadcast behavior but some time ago it was possible to wake up without the user starting the app and then you could do work on the user’s device. Such as pestering then with notifications, sucking up data, and so on.
I bet a lot of those people leave such apps installed after the fact.
The fun part is once an app is installed, it tends to stay installed for a very long time, and often will even follow them to new phones because what does your phone helpfully offer to do when you first set it up? It asks if you want to transfer all of your data to it. So it transfers everything, including all of your installed apps. I’ve uninstalled flashlight apps from back when phones didn’t have such functionality consistently built in
I’ve bee the using smartphones my entire life and I’ve fallen for this bullshit. I’ve instinctively pressed the first install button because my search was hyper specific, I just assumed it wouid be the first result.
But, of course it was an ad. Fucking Google.
It’s been ages since i touched frontend but there’s ways to stop the page moving as it loads and i swear it’s not done intentionally since it generates clicks.
That’s a fucking Google, an advertising company, for you.
This seems like a case of user error, considering the sponsored result is clearly not the application you asked them to install. However, the Play Store is undoubtedly trash and anti-consumer which is why I primarily use the Aurora Store even on non-deGoogled phones. Performing the same search in Aurora, that Zoho Assist app is not even in the first 20 results while RealVNC Viewer and RealVNC Server are the top two results.
No, fuck that. The ads being listed before rhe first result are intended to cause people to misclick. That isn’t all on the user.
Don’t excuse predatory business practices.
Are you illiterate? My very next sentence was:
However, the Play Store is undoubtedly trash and anti-consumer which is why I primarily use the Aurora Store even on non-deGoogled phones.
If the practices are predatory, blaming the user is excusing the predatory practices. Bragging about how you use something else in that context is doubling down on blaming the user instead of the practices.
So no, I am not illiterate. You ahould have just left off the sentence blaming the victim.
is doubling down on blaming the user instead of the practices
They blamed both, though.
Blaming a user for falling for malicious practices designed by multibillion dollars companies is like blaming the victim of a hit and run. “It was their fault for using the crosswalk, but the driver was also wrong for not stopping.”
Both sides!
Yeah, no one should have to look at what they’re doing to stop themselves from making mistakes! Everyone should be able to blindly make decisions and they should always be correct!
Victims just bring it on themselves!
However, the Play Store is undoubtedly trash and anti-consumer
Of course it’s user error. However a system makes it easier or harder to achieve a task or make errors. You say it’s clearly not the app that was asked for. I see two equally sized icons of the same color, two equally sized Install buttons. The first one being the wrong one. And this is after looking for an exact app name. I think we don’t need a focus group to show this drives clicks away from the searched app and to the ad. In fact we can be reasonably sure Google’s research drove the decision to create this UX. I’d have expected the ad to not have an Install button on it or at the very least to not use the prominent button color. 😒 BTW I didn’t downvote.
Of course, as I said - the Play Store is trash and anti-consumer. However, that does not change the fact that the sponsored application is clearly not called “RealVNC”, nor does it have a logo which says or suggests it is RealVNC. If you are getting tricked by the colour of an application logo then you have problems closer to home you should be worrying about.
A few months ago I needed to install Google home for something Chromecast related, so I quickly searched the play store and installed it. Loaded it up and I see an ad, what the hell. App opens and I realise it isn’t Google Home, it’s something made to trick me into thinking it was when I wasn’t paying attention.
Google is letting their ads steal their own users from them.
That’s actually pretty funny
They recently changed it so that the search bar no longer appears by default, and you have to go to the search tab just to get to it. Fuck heads.
That’s just like apple then. Lame
You can double click the search button at the bottom to start a search
Not to say that your relative is at fault, but this might also be a good opportunity to teach them about the font scaling and other visual accessibility settings in Android.
Yeah I hate this about the play store. I am so used to the first result being what I searched for that whenever I go install an app (once every couple months) I just click on the first one and then have to go back. I never use the install button in the search results because I always check the app descriprion and reviews but it is still annoying as all fuck.
Even Google maps does this! I accidentally drove 45 minutes out of the way because I clicked the first result because of course that should be the closest store. Google can fuck right off with these sponsored results
I tried to help someone buy some tickets to a local attraction yesterday. After googling it the first 5 results were ads and I had to scroll down to the official ticket store. Utter insanity
Just as a PSA:
For things only on PlayStore use Aurora Store or other apk downloaders like APKMirror/APKPure.For everything else ofc Droid-ify, Obtanium, F-Droid/G-Droid, Neo Store, Aurora Droid, etc.
Do you trust APKMirror and APKPure? I always thought they were a bit shady.
I mean, not really but Androids are fairly safe devices.
Why I use them (not often) however is that Play Store doesn’t seem that much controlled.
Interesting. I typically go for bVNC when I need a FOSS VNC client, but AVNC’s UI looks nicer.
I love it when the unarguably better option is FOSS
Must have something to do with the setting on my phone, I have seen what you are showing before
Oh this looks closer to what I recall seeing some time ago. I don’t visit the Play Store frequently. It could be regional, or user group difference, or perhaps just older/newer version.
Same
My dad nearly installed a virus on my computer once when installing skype because he just went for the first search result
That could be really bad. At least on Android there is sandboxing and permissions.
two identically formatted results appeared
Uhhhh no they didn’t. I mean unless you mean “identically formatted” the way every app in the Play Store is.
One is an advertisement, and labeled as such.
Now squint just a bit. That’s how everyone without perfect vision sees it, and that’s a huge proportion of people.
Also, this is how other results appear:
No Install buttons.
E: Not sure why this image doesn’t show but in any case, app results in lists don’t have Install buttons. Hm apparently it only doesn’t show on mobile.
I don’t doubt lots of people make that mistake, but ya can’t fix stupid. The only thing they can do is remove the ads entirely, which they probably should, but definitely won’t, but that is a different conversation.
Removing the Install button from the ad would eliminate this issue in most cases. There, I fixed stupid. I’ve done UX btw, some of it on Android.
You haven’t fixed anything, you’ve just made it more difficult to install the advertised app.
I aimed to make it more difficult to install the advertised app by accident, which was the original problem. You seem to agree that my design change would achieve that. 😂
My point is there is no way they can make it any more clear without making the advertised app harder to install. If your concern is that having advertised apps at the top of the search results makes people more likely to click on them, yes, everyone knows, and that is the intent.
Everyone here knows everything you said. I’m merely providing a current example of where things are today and I’m making a moral judgement that this design has become too counterproductive for the user. Not sure if you stand on the other side of this and if you do, that’s fine. You may have your reasons to support Alphabet’s corporate interest. I don’t in this case. Therefore I feel it’s justified to make things less productive for Alphabet. You suggested nothing can be done other than removing the ad altogether. I suggested a way to solve the issue I highlighted without removing the ad.
The screenshot you are showing is scrolled down the page past “More results”. What you are showing is after all of the actual search results (which for me is just the app and no ad).
Don’t use the google play store, it is quite literally malware
