Oooohhhhhhhh.

I have been warning of a culture war for years, I think people finally believe me now

And yet the Gun Deals app still works just fine.

Apps will work just fine, they (Google) just removed it from the app store so you can't download it or update it through them.

If Gunbroker is smart, they'll have the ability to side load by the end of next week, so you can install it directly from their site instead of the play store. Of course that requires a bit more savvy Android owner to load it, but it's not that hard.

Can anyone recommend an Android-tolerant search engine so that I can eliminate google from my life?

There's no such thing as separating yourself from Google on the Android platform. Google wrote Android, and holds all the keys to the kingdom, there's no getting away from it.

However, if you want a Google-less browser to use on your Android (or IOS device), try this: https://info.ecosia.org/mobile

Interesting
So since google, IS ANDROID, and Google play is the #1 primary way to get apps on your droid device (like Itunes for apple), they are in effect restricting developers and Droid users 1A rights by not allowing certain forms of communication based on personal bias. In this day and age of electronic printing devices, it is not really any different than if a printer Mfg suddenly made it so that their printers will not print out the word Gun, or Ammo, etc.

So one has to wonder, where does the line sit in regards to 1A when a primary / only source of programming suddenly decides to restrict what they allow to be sourced. What about Apps like Strelok and the like, they are 100% entirely gun related, are they next?

True, but honestly a great many/most people will not load apps from secondary sources. The risks are just far to great for malicious code to mess with your phone. Plus as mentioned, usually non "play hosted" apps take rooting of the device to get them loaded I believe? Many phones simply cannot be rooted easily these days.

First amendment rights only come into play when the government restricts free speech, not a private entity (like Google or Apple or Facebook), it's their platform, they can do as they see fit. However, they've left gaps that allow you to load whatever you want, as long as you know how (and trust the publisher of the not-allowed-by-big-brother software). It's called sideloading, and you can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideloading

as far as i understand, rooting is not required unless you want to remove or alter "system" components - crap that came pre-loaded in your phone's OS
non-hosted apps for Android systems are .apk, you can download them off the web anywhere, like here for example: https://apkpure.com/gunbroker-com/com.gunbroker.android these install just like a .exe program on your PC
I'm pretty sure there are anti-virus and malware scanners for Android but i can't speak to their quality and effectiveness

this is PC BS just like deplatforming of infowars, for all these years Google has been hosting Gunbroker app but NOW, all of a sudden, it's a "violation of policy". total bullshit.
the only way to dump Google is to get rid of your smartphone, close the gmail account, don't use google search engine, and buy a paper map. even then i'm not sure if one can be google free, their tentacles are almost everywhere nowadays

Apple(and yes not an android)? Really talking about picking the lesser of evil and either way you get evil.

It's a bit of an old article, but here are your choices:

https://www.zdnet.com/pictures/beyond-a ... ernatives/

TLDR: Basically #1 is Android (Google), #2 is Apple (not as much Google, and lots of Apple), & #3 is up for grabs between a bunch of different operating systems (still going to see Google on these, if nothing else their Chrome browser).

Well if your app is popular enough, people will sideload for it.

Fortnite claims 23 mil sideload since August.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/09/ ... ogle-play/