HTC continues to shift apps to Play Store with HTC Lock Screen

I want to say Google was the one who first started to pull out system apps and putting them to the Play Store. I am probably wrong on that front, but it has been a long time. Manufacturers have been slowly, but surely, bringing core apps out of the main OS and placing them on the Play Store. With developers able to target specific devices, software versions and other aspects in a released app, it is becoming more and more common to see device and OEM specific apps more or less publicly available. HTC continues to migrate their deeply integrated apps out of the hardware OS and place them on the Play Store. The latest addition is the HTC lock screen app.

All of you with a HTC One M8 know all about this lockscreen. Those with other manufacturer devices don’t, and you won’t unless you buy an HTC device. Pushing the app out of the software to the Play Store will give HTC the ability to solve specific issues, implement new features and avoid lengthy update timelines due to carrier checks. The release doesn’t offer up anything fantastic with the only new item listed as a “Mechanism to prevent you from unintentionally triggering factory reset.” Apparently that has been an issue for people.

Any users out there install the app yet? Have you had any issues? The Play Store comments don’t seem to be very favorable at all.