Offer an Android app which works without Google services for download on evernote.com

[ehrt74 226]

Hi everybody!

I sometimes flash an old Android phone with lineageOS. Getting Evernote on to the device is a bit of a chore. Could you offer a download for the latest Evernote version for Android as well as offering it in the Play Store? (or does the app use the Google infrastructure for things like work chat or informing the client that changes have been made to a note?)

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I've just found out that the evernote client doesn't work on Android without play services, so i imagine it uses services for chat or pinging the client to get it to wake up. Offering the client for direct download on evernote.com therefore wouldn't make much sense 😕 (if android devices need google services to run evernote, then they'll probably have access to the google play store anyway). Therefore i'm changing the title to "offer an android app which works without google services. I know, this is a big ask ...

Edited March 10, 2022 by ehrt74
found out relevant info

[dairymilkbatman 0]

A vote for the above, please please please allow us to download the apk file so I can use my lineageOS phone. I'd be happy to pay because both evernote and lineageOS/ linux phones are greatly valued by me.

Much love

 

[PinkElephant 5,562]

Currently only the legacy Android app is available as apk download.

To get something to the attention of EN, use the feedback function of a client, or issue a support ticket. The forum is user2user, we can’t do anything about it. 

[ehrt74 226]

5 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

Currently only the legacy Android app is available as apk download.

To get something to the attention of EN, use the feedback function of a client, or issue a support ticket. The forum is user2user, we can’t do anything about it. 

Hi! Yep, i already have done. I'm just trying to increase the visibility of this

Also there are a number of sites where you can download the current android apk as well. Although it's something i've never done, others seem to have no difficulty extracting an apk from an android device.

[ehrt74 226]

11 hours ago, dairymilkbatman said:

A vote for the above, please please please allow us to download the apk file so I can use my lineageOS phone. I'd be happy to pay because both evernote and lineageOS/ linux phones are greatly valued by me.

Much love

 

if you have google play services installed there are a number of sites which offer the current apk for download. If they are safe or not is another question 😕 

The more interesting thing the way I see it is that the current android app (and probably the legacy app as well?) both require google play services. I imagine they use this to push information about changes in documents or chat messages. As long as nobody spends the requisite billions making a replacement for google play services there's not likely to be another implementation. The only way around this that I am aware of is to code different paths depending on if google play services are installed or not. This will probably require changes in the back-end as well (though that should be easy enough: changes are pushed directly to the mac and windows clients and to all the other 3rd party services).

long story short: if you've installed google play services you can already install the latest evernote android apk, provided you're happy about going hunting for it and downloading it from another appstore. If you haven't installed google play services, getting the evernote android apk running will require a lot of work by evernote.

[agsteele 1,879]

Google Play and it's alternative on other platforms (such as Android) is the place that users who want confidence in the safety of their apps or, indeed, aren't at ease with side loading an apk will go to get whichever version of an app they require. I seem to recall that Google require Play Store to be installed with Android. 

For this reason it is always going to be the primary delivery mechanism. Services like apkMirror are the place to go for the standalone apks.

[ehrt74 226]

4 hours ago, agsteele said:

Google Play and it's alternative on other platforms (such as Android) is the place that users who want confidence in the safety of their apps or, indeed, aren't at ease with side loading an apk will go to get whichever version of an app they require. I seem to recall that Google require Play Store to be installed with Android. 

For this reason it is always going to be the primary delivery mechanism. Services like apkMirror are the place to go for the standalone apks.

i tend to look at it the other way round. because android is open source anybody can take it and do their own thing (see Huawei or Amazon). Google uses access to the play store as a way to combat fragmentation. If you want to sell a device with access to the play store, then your device needs to pass this list of some 80 000 tests to ensure compatibility.