Niantic and APKMirror
ArtilectZed
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in General
Niantic appears to have DMCA'd all the Prime releases on APKMirror.com. 1.x and Redacted releases are still up. Hoping @RedSoloCup or @NianticBrian could explain why the company would do that? It's a freely downloadable game, can't imagine what they think they would be protecting by doing this.
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Does it even matter though? It can't be used any more except for below board purposes?
Because APKmirror was distributing the APK without authorization. That should be obvious enough. Just because you can download it for free from the Play Store doesn't mean that is legal for other website or service to disribute the APK.
Below board purposes? What?
If it was a paid for product, that would be understandable and make sense. It's a free game that anyone can download, though. Seems silly to have wasted lawyer time on it.
Good on them.
I guess this falls under "(b) distribute, transfer, sublicense, lease, lend, or rent the Apps to any third party;" in the TOS.
Just hurting the end users, though. These aren't modified APK's, same file that the Play Store is sending out.
They are already paying the lawyers and the cost of filling a DMCA is pocket change. Also, Niantic has filed DMCAs involving Pokemon GO before and recently filed a DMCA strike on a Blogspot site that was distributing the Ingress APK this past July. (source)
Hadn't been aware of those instances, thanks for the info.
Very interesting. I guess staged rollouts aren't really small if a good portion of users sideload installs.
I started getting the game updates through APKMirror a few years back when I had to wait days for new versions to roll out to me. Probably not the issue these days, but I still think it's silly to DMCA over it.
I wouldn't think "a good portion" of users were installing that way, though. Most people don't understand how the system works and are convinced you might install a hacked copy of the game from there.
Doesn't need a lawyer to file a DMCA takedown. Anyone can do it in under 10 min.
Again, why does anyone need an older non working version of the game?
Heaven forbid they focus on spoofers and multiaccounters. I realize they are within their rights to do that but it's kinda dumb.
You misunderstood him, he is lamenting that all the current releases of Ingress Prime have been taken down, leaving only Redacted. He, and many others, would like to get their hands on the newest release of Ingress Prime, but Niantic has had their Lawyers do a DMCA takedown.
You can get the newest version through Play Store. There is absolutely no reason to sideload.
Everyone knows this. People want it as soon as they read the release notes, but Niantic does a phased rollout, preventing many people from getting their hands on it for a couple of days, sometimes weeks.
Well that was dumb of NIA.
I did missread it. Thanks
Probably has to do with some Play Store metrics and its promotion algorithms. That stuff absolutely does matter for growth
the UK is about 10 days later than most other people
For years they've been saying don't use APKs. And yet people keep pushing APK mirror.
I guess they just decided to go to the source.
Interesting thing about that is I got 2.31 on Sept 10th within one day of its release, and I think 2.32 about two days after release. It's usually a lot longer than that. 2.33 hasn't arrived yet.
I think this is good. no reason getting apk outside playstore and u cant really be safe knowing its the same..
I guess they feel it messes too much with their staggered rollout. Or maybe it's just IP protection. I'm sure is a breach of license to redistribute Ingress without Niantic's consent.
If you already have an app installed from the playstore and later update it using a sideloaded APK (from apkmirror or elsewhere) this is perfectly safe. Android will only allow upgrades when the new version is signed by the same key as the old one.
So, as long as your original install came from the playstore you're fine, as long as you don't uninstall the application and reinstall from an untrusted source
This. When there's a bug you've been waiting for a fix for, and then having to wait for the play store roll out can be maddening.
I wonder how long they're going to realize that Fev Games has your apk teardowns on the site still
(and yes this predates the TOS explicitly stating teardowns but you can see a new editor did one with Prime)
APK Mirror always made sure the apk was signed correctly before uploading it. I have been sideloading the apks for years with no problem whatsoever.
It's hilarious this was never a problem for 6 years. Everything is server side with Prime, waiting for the apk rollout is always a pain on Play Store.
I'm surprised this wasn't done to Pokémon Go and Harry Potter...
It had been done for Pokemon Go a couple of times. It seems Niantic only targets certain versions and not everything.
I prefer bleeding edge versions of ingress. Most fun to use before the masses... You know, it's the coolest thing to do!