Hacker News Reader

Comment by afandian | Hacker News Reader

Try using Slack in a browser on Android. It doesn't work. I find that really objectionable. They don't (last time I asked) distribute an APK. Instead they directed me to a pirate APK site, so I don't believe it's for security.

View on HN

Sites like APKMirror aren't pirate sites, as they only host APKs that are free of charge. Also, if you're using Android without Play Services but still want to download Play Store apps, you can use the "Yalp Store" app from F-Droid.

I'm not making a moral judgement, maybe 'pirate' was the wrong word. It probably was something like APKMirror, and my point was the chain of trust is broken (you have decide to trust that site and its provenance model) vs an HTTPS download from the Slack domain.

Yalp Store is a great app! Incidentally, it violates the Play Store ToS (this is even written in their FAQ[0])

[0] https://github.com/yeriomin/YalpStore#faq

Try using Slack in a browser on Android. It doesn't work.

It does work on Firefox for Android, if you enable Request Desktop Site. It's not optimized for small screens, though.

I tried exactly that a few weeks ago and couldn't get to the messages interface.

Worksforme :)

I just checked with Firefox Focus on Android, and the 'launch' button is missing. Even if I go to the `/messages` URL I am redirected back to the account splash screen. That's my default browser, especially as I only wanted to log in for a minute to check on something on my personal device.

It does work with Firefox on Android (not Firefox Focus), if you check 'desktop mode'. Weird that you should have to fake the user-agent string to access it.

What browser are you using and are you upto date. Many sites don't work on mobile chrome.

I find it hard to believe they would redirect you to a pirate site. Are you sure it was a pirate site and not just a third party site hosting apks

Firefox on Android. Per my other comment at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17874566 it was a mirror site, though I didn't save the chat log so I can't remember which one.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com