The research follows claims that Facebook has been “secretly preparing” contingency measures to allow its apps to operate on Android phones without going through its rival’s Play store should it enter an “intractable conflict” with Google. The objective of the test, which happened several years ago, was to see at what threshold would a person ditch the Facebook app altogether.
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While Facebook doesn’t specify exactly how it identifies such offenders, chief security officer Alex Stamos said: “To protect the integrity of our methods and processes, we often won’t be able to explain how we attribute certain attacks to suspected attackers”.
There were also third-party Android distributions in other parts of Asia, Russia and other developing countries that did not use Google’s official app store.
Did Facebook really break its Android App on goal? Android is one of biggest markets for Facebook with over 200 million users in 2013, but the social network is finding ways to lower its dependence on this Google-controlled platform.
With more than a billion users checking in on its app every day, the company’s revenue went up 40 percent in the last quarter, proving just how dependent we have become to Zuckerberg’s social app.
One of said people also told him that it was a “one-time experiment”.
Of course, this experiment did not cause more harm to the user than a few hours of frustration.
While Facebook could make its app work without the Google Play store, it would also have to develop its own replacements for numerous services provided by Google Services, including the ability to provide automatic updates and in-app purchases.
A Facebook spokesman declined to comment for this story. “What’s troublesome is that we simply don’t know, because Facebook itself won’t say”.
However, former Facebook data scientist JJ Maxwell defended the move, saying tests like these are “hugely valuable” to the company. We use them as mirrors and cameras, we use them to stay connected, send texts and place calls.
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Admittedly, Facebook is not alone as many tech firms quietly test new features on users.
