I was looking up session just to see what it looks like given the announced protocol V2 but found it now requires age verification in the Play Store?!
I could not replicate this, so may be specific to Wherever you live? (Tried both Google Accounts and Aurora store)
Aurora store wont show that so that makes sense.
Do you have (had) the app installed? In that case it is already âinâ your current google account and it wonât ask for this either.
I use Graphene and Aurora store so I wouldnât know. But do you need to be signed into Play Store to download apps?
Yes? Not seeing the revelance here.
They do. But still these dumb requirements will make someone submit such data to Google. And generally the thought that an app with encrypted chat is not for under 18 is rather mad.
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I hope Session advertises that the app can be downloaded from outside the Play Store too. I wonder if they can say this in their Play Store listing.
But of course, any such requirement is ridiculous and must be ridiculed.
I may have installed it on one account but not on the other
One of my accounts already was verified using credit card but the other I donât ever recall verifying it if ever
(And before you guys go WTF YOU AGE VERIFIED or whatever, NO, That was before YouTube decided to implement AI Age prediction bs, Google has always been asking for an ID, Face or Credit Card for that is content that is deemed or tagged with Mature content)
I canât replicate (in the Play Store). Might be based on the userâs country. I never installed this app.
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This requirement seems to come from the parental control requirement for countries using PEGI which has been configured. Session has PARENTAL GUIDANCE RECOMMENDED as classification.
Apps do not always have predefined content that can be classified beforehand. Certain apps function as portals (e.g. to stream content), offering a broad, variable range of content from which consumers can choose. For these apps, we use the parental guidance icon, alerting parents that the app may provide access to content that is not appropriate for their child, although other, age-appropriate content may also be available, depending on the selection of the user.
It is a pretty wide classification but f.x. Signal and WhatsApp do not have this and have classification PEGI 3. This is all self submission so Session has configured it like this. (Manage target audience and app content settings - Play Console Help)
Based on what that page says, it sounds more like they filled out the questionnaire, then Google/IARC was responsible for assigning the ratings. Iâm guessing they filled it out saying stuff like âthere could be questionable content (in the chats)â and that shot up the ratings. Google Play lists âusers interactâ as the only given reason for it being 12+ AFAICT.
For reference, thereâs a GitHub issue about this that they closed recently where the suggestion is effectively to use F-Droid since they donât think they can do anything about it.