Even simple apps nowadays have become subscription only. Whilst I used to pirate most stuff in the past, but if the app in question is a small one time purchase, it's not bad considering you don't need to sideload updated apk's from Mobilism each time a new version is released (looks at some great cheap apps like Pano Scrobbler).

However, the trend has shifted towards the other side with everything from video recording apps(AZ Recorder), Weather apps(Today Weather) and Battery monitoring apps(Battery guru) offering subscriptions. Some have a high one time purchase option but some like the latter don't.

Battery Guru is an example of enshittification. If phones still came with removable batteries and companies supported them, then for the price of say, a 4 year subscription to the app, I could have just gotten a new replaceable battery. It's not like the app will magically stop my battery from degrading.

Whilst I have done piracy ( and still pirate stuff like films because no alternative, screw you Netflix), I tried to go the legal route for some apps since then updation and management of them becomes easier. But with the subscription scourge, I doubt devs are going in the right direction.

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[–] ladfrombrad@lemdro.id 11 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I kinda disagree on the weather app subscription model.

The API usage cost devs a fair whack depending on the sources they scrape from and while I've never used Today Weather, I have used FlowX (formerly WeatherBomb) for ages and the free version has no crap / ads/ nag pages with basic radar models available, but I decided to subscribe since it (besides supporting the dev) gives me high resolution radars for longer time-spans. And since I'm an outdoor worker too I thought it best to be on top of the weather.

But overall I do agree some of the forced "subscribe or ads" model can die in a fire.

[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Today Weather is decent otherwise, has multiple sources as options and a clean, somewhat customizable UI. It also has a proper Wear OS app with complications support.

[–] ladfrombrad@lemdro.id 3 points 5 days ago

Yeah I checked it out and it seems nice with all the other info not available in FlowX such as sunrise/sunset times etc in a Material theme. But I like FlowX simply for its information density and accuracy, latter being my most favourite thing since I can switch between high res models and predict myself if I need freezer pantie time/weather proofs.