Tesco Bank app seems to have disappeared from Android Play Store

Daliah

Molehusband said:

Olinda99 said:

I know i am probably being a party pooper but presumably Tesco prohibited installing their banking app on these tablets for a reason...

If there was a "prohibition" Tesco would have informed customers. I've received no such notification and therefore assume I can continue to use it as it's working fine. In fact I'd go further and say it works significantly better than when used in a phone with the microscopic non-keyboards.

They "informed" you by not providing the app for download onto your tablet.

k_man

Tablets are harder to develop for, due the the wide variance of specifications (specifically screen size, resolution, DPI and font sizes).

So while the app may work on a tablet, Tesco's development team have probably decided* not add the extra cost of supporting tablets, given tablets make up about 2% of the mobile device market (so if you exclude iPads too...)

Working, and supported are two different things.
The Tesco community forums are unlikely to advise how to install unsupported configurations.

Would be an interesting discussion should something odd happen, and the app was used on an unsupported (and so potentially less secure) device.

*Whether we/you/I agree with that decision is a different matter.

Molehusband

k_man said:

Tablets are harder to develop for, due the the wide variance of specifications (specifically screen size, resolution, DPI and font sizes).

So while the app may work on a tablet, Tesco's development team have probably decided* not add the extra cost of supporting tablets, given tablets make up about 2% of the mobile device market (so if you exclude iPads too...)

The app works fine for me on more than one tablet. In fact for me it works better on them than on my mobile phones.

I have no idea of what the Tesco Bank apps development team have or have not decided and I presume you are just speculating. Since they have made no attempt whatever to inform me, I will continue to use the product in accordance with my preference.

Daliah

Molehusband said:

k_man said:

Tablets are harder to develop for, due the the wide variance of specifications (specifically screen size, resolution, DPI and font sizes).

So while the app may work on a tablet, Tesco's development team have probably decided* not add the extra cost of supporting tablets, given tablets make up about 2% of the mobile device market (so if you exclude iPads too...)

The app works fine for me on more than one tablet. In fact it works better on them than on my mobile phones.

I have no idea of what the Tesco Bank apps development team have or have not decided and I presume you are just speculating. Since they have made no attempt whatever to inform me, I will continue to use the product in accordance with my preference..

The point being made is that if something goes wrong - e.g. someone fraudulently empties your Tesco accounts - you'll be on your own as you have decided to run the app on a device Tesco do not support. You might find this an acceptable risk but you can't claim you have not been made aware of that risk, and you can't say it's not in the T&Cs because it is.

k_man

Molehusband said:

k_man said:

Tablets are harder to develop for, due the the wide variance of specifications (specifically screen size, resolution, DPI and font sizes).

So while the app may work on a tablet, Tesco's development team have probably decided* not add the extra cost of supporting tablets, given tablets make up about 2% of the mobile device market (so if you exclude iPads too...)

The app works fine for me on more than one tablet. In fact for me it works better on them than on my mobile phones.

I have no idea of what the Tesco Bank apps development team have or have not decided and I presume you are just speculating. Since they have made no attempt whatever to inform me, I will continue to the product in accordance with my preference.

Thus the use of the term probably:
Tesco's development team have probably decided.

As stated above, Tesco implicitly informed you, by not making the app available via the official channels, and in the FAQ:

https://yourcommunity.tescobank.com/content/3141-Why-does-my-device-no-longer-support-the-Mobile-Banking-App#ckb_start

Please note, the App isn't available on Android tablets.


But as you state, you can continue to use the product in accordance with your preference.
Your preference, your money, your fraud protection.

Molehusband

Daliah said:

The point being made is that if something goes wrong - e.g. someone fraudulently empties your Tesco accounts - you'll be on your own as you have decided to run the app on a device Tesco do not support. You might find this an acceptable risk but you can't claim you have not been made aware of that risk, and you can't say it's not in the T&Cs because it is.

For me things far more likely to go wrong and my losing money using the microscopic non-keyboards on phones as I am more likely to key in wrong data. Please read what I said earlier that I do all my transactions, only solely and totally using the Tesco Bank website. I only ever view information using a financial mobile app and I do not key in any transaction data whatever. This is why I will not use financial products from app only businesses like Chase because of the increased risk of losing money by struggling to key in transaction data on user unfriendly microscopic non-keyboards.

Molehusband

k_man said:

I have no idea of what the Tesco Bank apps development team have or have not decided and I presume you are just speculating. Since they have made no attempt whatever to inform me, I will continue to the product in accordance with my preference.

As stated above, Tesco implicitly informed you, by not making the app available via the official channels, and in the FAQ:

https://yourcommunity.tescobank.com/content/3141-Why-does-my-device-no-longer-support-the-Mobile-Banking-App#ckb_start

Please note, the App isn't available on Android tablets.


But as you state, you can continue to use the product in accordance with your preference.
Your preference, your money, your fraud protection.

The app I am using was downloaded from the official channels. Since I use mobile devices only for viewing information and never for making transactions, please explain how opening a screen, viewing it and immediately closing it, places me at risk of fraud when I never ever ever conduct any transactions on a mobile device. All my transactions are done only through bank websites.

Daliah

Molehusband said:

Daliah said:

The point being made is that if something goes wrong - e.g. someone fraudulently empties your Tesco accounts - you'll be on your own as you have decided to run the app on a device Tesco do not support. You might find this an acceptable risk but you can't claim you have not been made aware of that risk, and you can't say it's not in the T&Cs because it is.

For me things far more likely to go wrong and my losing money using the microscopic non-keyboards on phones as I am more likely to key in wrong data. Please read what I said earlier that I do all my transactions, only solely and totally using the Tesco Bank website. I only ever view information using a financial mobile app and I do not key in any transaction data whatever. This is why I will not use financial products from app only businesses like Chase because of the increased risk of losing money by struggling to key in transaction data on user unfriendly microscopic non-keyboards.

Whether you just view your accounts or transact on them makes little difference. Just to repeat: it's your risk, your decision, not anyone else's if you choose the breach the T&Cs and run an unsupported version of an app, particularly a banking app. 

Molehusband

Daliah said:

Molehusband said:

Daliah said:

The point being made is that if something goes wrong - e.g. someone fraudulently empties your Tesco accounts - you'll be on your own as you have decided to run the app on a device Tesco do not support. You might find this an acceptable risk but you can't claim you have not been made aware of that risk, and you can't say it's not in the T&Cs because it is.

For me things far more likely to go wrong and my losing money using the microscopic non-keyboards on phones as I am more likely to key in wrong data. Please read what I said earlier that I do all my transactions, only solely and totally using the Tesco Bank website. I only ever view information using a financial mobile app and I do not key in any transaction data whatever. This is why I will not use financial products from app only businesses like Chase because of the increased risk of losing money by struggling to key in transaction data on user unfriendly microscopic non-keyboards.

Whether you just view your accounts or transact on them makes little difference. Just to repeat: it's your risk, your decision, not anyone else's if you choose the breach the T&Cs and run an unsupported version of an app, particularly a banking app. 

I am happy the way I work which I think is significantly safer than people using the microscopic non-keyboards with app-only banks like Chase.

End of discussion.

alanwsg

Tesco haven't specifically decided not to allow you to use its App on a tablet - when they build the APK, they define the minimum version of Android that is supported. PlayStore then declines to offer the App to devices that don't offer that minimum.

As you've found out, it might still work, but it's not supported. But Tesco didn't specifically forbid it by choice. 

As for the 'Unknown sources' question - sorry, I haven't read all comments but you disable it the same way you enabled it (and you should once the App is installed).

Once again Android has evolved. Older versions had one checkbox somewhere in setting that globally enabled/disabled the option. Later versions added more control so you could decide which Apps are allowed to install other Apps. (E.g. the PlayStore App obviously should be allowed, the browser certainly not).